


Jinx!

by imawarlock



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Bathing/Washing, Cat Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Frottage, M/M, Pining, Soulmates, Who is also from the 1700s
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-01-27 09:52:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 40,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12579104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imawarlock/pseuds/imawarlock
Summary: When Erwin moves into a small town rich in history, he wasn't expecting it to turn out to be so...well, creepy. Concerned that he may have stumbled across a potentially supernatural mystery, he soon finds out that the strange things he's been experiencing are the least of his worries — but not until he meets a large, black cat, one whose grey eyes happen to have an oddly human look about them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween! This is part one of the fic I've been working on for the occasion. I wasn't able to finish all of it in time but the 2nd part should be up ASAP.

Erwin had to admit, the town he’d moved into was a bit strange. 

The people were nice, he’d discovered, and he liked his new job as director of the city’s small historical society decently enough, but it only took the passage of two days after he’d gotten settled into the home he’d purchased before he began to notice that….well, the place seemed to be a bit  _ spooky _ . It was perhaps a silly thing to think, he thought, but it was true, as there was no other word to describe the odd, seemingly otherworldly occurrences that had plagued him right from the beginning. 

First, there had been the noises, the strange sounds at night that he couldn’t quite place, like the bumps on his roof that were followed by a quiet pitter-pattering that could have been tiny feet, the faint scratching sounds that often came from outside the walls, and the taps on his windows, too, that Erwin  _ swore  _ he heard even when he looked out and found that nothing was ever there.  Then, of course, there was the hissing and yowling that often woke him up in the middle of the night, startling him out of sleep even if it seemed to come from deep inside the nearby woods, the bloody, mutilated corpses of small animals like mice and birds and moles that he always found around his house in the yard every morning, and the overall eerie feeling that he wasn’t alone, that he was being watched by some _ one _ or some _ thing _ in the distance that oversaw his every movement. 

It was unnerving, and sometimes he would get such an intense sensation of it that the hair on his arms would stand up on end and he would freeze, perturbed enough so that he couldn’t do anything but remain still and silent for a few moments before he whirled around to see if something was behind him. That was what it always felt like, but not once did he ever see anything, which might have caused him to believe he was just imagining all of it if he didn’t always hear a loud thump above his head next or what sounded like skittering on the wood of his front porch, the noises coming so suddenly that he would sometimes almost found himself jumping out of fright. 

Although Erwin wasn’t  _ afraid _ , per se, because he had never really been entirely sure whether he believed in ghosts or not, the occurrences had begun as soon as he’d moved in and had gotten exponentially worse every day, so much so that even after just 10 days of living there he had started to entertain the normally irrational possibility that his house might actually be  _ haunted _ . 

What else could explain his experiences? He felt there had to be something logical, but he couldn’t quite come up with anything else that made sense of all of the strange things that continued to happen. 

Even the thought that it could be a raccoon or a possum or a cat skulking around outside didn’t really fit because of the sheer amount of noises he heard — and the _plethora_ of dead critters he found in his yard, which was potentially the most disturbing aspect of it all — and if it actually _had_ been an animal anyway, shouldn’t he have seen at least _some_ sign of it by now? Erwin thought so, but what could be haunting him, and why? As far as he knew no one had ever died on his property even if the house was quite old, but perhaps it had something to do with the history of the area, he thought, of the prominence of witchcraft that he knew to be closely interwoven with it all. 

Erwin had been vaguely familiar with that even before he’d gotten his job, of course, because of his general interest in history, but now that he worked there he was starting to realize just how strong of a recurring theme it had been since the town’s founding as a tiny, isolated village over a century ago. Of course, there were witches that had been persecuted and burned at the stake there just like in many other places across the continent, but  here it seemed that it didn’t just start or end with that, and Erwin  _ had  _ found something rather interesting the other day in the bottom of some long unopened archive drawer. 

Still, though, he wasn’t superstitious, and what about any of that would result in his house being a potential center for paranormal activity? He wasn’t sure, not at all, but he at least began to feel slightly relieved when he discovered that it didn't actually seem to be  _ just  _ his house, but everywhere else in the whole town too. He hadn’t noticed at first because in the two weeks since he’d moved in he’d always been busy and distracted while out in public, but once things managed to slow down a bit and he had some free time, he quickly realized that things were not what they seemed in what he had previously thought to be a quiet, sleepy, quaint little place that he would enjoy living in.

In fact, the more time he spent  _ out  _ of his home the more he found the overall atmosphere in the city at large to be a bit disconcerting, the silence he had thought of as a good, comforting thing before now coming off as anomalous and almost oppressive. That was because it seemed to be present at all hours of the day, Erwin thought, and even when the city was busy with people and cars everywhere it was almost as if the sound was....well,  _ muted  _ like the volume on a television set. The air was heavy at night and all in all it was an exceedingly odd feeling, one that made Erwin’s view of the entire place start to change, his idea — and perhaps misplaced delight — of it being an old-world, isolated town rich in historic value turning into something else, something that made him feel like he was trapped in a bubble where things were ever so slightly distorted from how they were in every other part of the world. 

Day by day, it all got worse, too, as the buildings dating from the medieval period or before that lined the streets had now begun to seem kind of creepy rather than charming or fascinating to him, just like the massive, aged trees that were planted everywhere, their long, twisted limbs completely bare and visible due to the fact that they had long ago lost all of their leaves. Erwin thought that unusual because it was only early fall — mid-October, actually, and just a few weeks away from Halloween — but either way it made them look grey and dead, unsettling on top of everything else and because of the fact that they usually sat underneath a cloudy sky, the eerie silence that pervaded the town sometimes being interrupted by random gusts of wind that would send the remnants of their fallen leaves scattering around at Erwin’s feet. 

Other than that, the only other thing Erwin could sometimes hear when the city was calm was the random, odd sounds that would occur out of nowhere just as they did in his home, noises that no doubt made everything about the atmosphere of the place seem even more hair-raising. Out there, Erwin noticed, they were a bit different, too; instead of bumps above his head, he thought, there were  _ clangs _ , and rather than scratching or skittering there was the crunching of leaves or a thumping on metal. All of it was louder, too, than in Erwin’s home which...well, said _ a lot _ , and before it was over with, they would be accompanied by sights —  something that piqued his curiosity more than anything and that in the end, actually gave him a clue as to what might be going on so that he could stop suspecting that he was being followed around by something unexplainable. 

It happened one morning when he’d found himself sitting outside at a small cafe along main street, reading a book, sipping on some coffee, and enjoying the calm that surrounded him before the peacefulness was very  _ loudly  _ and abruptly interrupted. It had been Saturday and there had been no one on the streets at that hour, no cars or trucks or motorcycles rushing back and forth on the road as people hurried to get to work or school. Without those sights to distract him, the only thing Erwin had  _ really  _ been able to hear were the birds chirping in the trees and the distant noises of chatter that came from the patrons inside the cafe — actually quite clear that day, instead of muted, which was perhaps the reason that the the loud, positively discordant crash that sounded out suddenly happened to scare the absolute shit out of him. 

There was no other way to describe how much it startled him, he thought, because it had been so loud that he’d sworn it had rattled his coffee mug on top of the table. Maybe that was the wind, though, which had gusted so hard right after Erwin had jumped about a foot into the air that he had to squint his eyes, finding that they opened about as wide as possible once it was over while his heart pounded like a hammer against his rib cage. Looking around wildly, almost, he had to fight the urge to stand up as if a shot of adrenaline had released inside of his body, somehow suppressing it and becoming distracted and a bit calmer anyway when he caught sight of what must have caused the jarring sound: several metal trash cans, lying in disarray outside of an alley about 10 yards away from him. 

Upon realizing it, Erwin was immediately sure that they had not been like that before. He would have noticed a mess of garbage on the sidewalk, he thought, which was now the case, as the lids of two of the cans had fallen off, allowing the stuff to spill all over the place in a heap. Behind all of that was another one that was now slowly rolling towards the gutter while the rest of the cans lay stacked haphazardly in a chaotic looking, surely smelly pile, the side of the one closest to Erwin noticeably sporting a large dent that made it looked like it had been hit hard. Was that what had caused them to fall over? Erwin couldn’t be sure, but even if he had been, it wouldn’t answer the question of who or what had hit it, as there was absolutely no sign of anything or anyone else at all in the area. In fact, by the time he had registered what had caused the raucous, shrill cacophony of clanging, scraping metal, everything around him had gone quiet and deathly still again — so suffocatingly silent, actually, that to Erwin it all seemed to be a little eerie. 

Adding to that, Erwin saw, was the fact that he had apparently been the only person to even notice, despite the two other people sitting outside the cafe with him and the group of three men that he’d glimpsed conversing near a bench across the street. They were even standing right in front of the alley, too, albeit several yards away, but not one of them nor the other cafe patrons had even batted an eyelash at the crash or looked away from what they were doing, something that seemed odd when the chaos had suddenly interrupted an otherwise quiet, uneventful morning. Feeling suspicious now, Erwin leaned back in his chair and sipped his coffee and stared in the direction of the trash cans, focusing his eyes with a squint so that he could scan the entire scene over and over again to see if he had missed anything. 

He hadn’t though, he decided, and he was quite sure that he hadn’t imagined any of it either. He wasn’t crazy and he knew he had heard it, but still, he tried to get back to his book, to convince himself that perhaps he was just being paranoid because of all the off-putting things that were going on in his house. It was just the wind, he told himself, it had to be, because hadn’t it blown past him right after he’d heard all the noises? It had, Erwin knew, but the trash cans had spilled out from  _ inside  _ the alley — a place situated between two relatively tall buildings that would have blocked the gust of wind. Even if they hadn’t they had exploded outward in the wrong direction, and what about the large, seemingly tell-tale dent Erwin had seen on the side of one?

Obviously, he thought, it must have been made some other time because he knew trash cans often got quite a beating during their time on the streets, and he was just trying to make this situation bizarre because he wanted answers. Although Erwin did his best to try and believe that while he continued to sit there, he unfortunately found that he just couldn’t. Something about all of this didn’t sit right with him, he thought, and he eventually gave up on trying to find his concentration again after five more minutes at the table saw his sneaking peeks at the alleyway over the top of his book at least a dozen times. 

Sighing to himself, he closed it with a ‘thump’ and finished his drink, deciding that it was probably best that he get up to head home. Naturally, though, his undammable curiosity led him to take the long way to his car so that he could pass by the alley, practically craning his neck to look around the corner as he approached it — while his heart raced in his chest, for some reason — with so much focus that he found himself startled again a second later, caught off guard when he heard a growling noise followed by a streak of something black darting out in front of him, the shape proving to be a large, black cat that moved so quickly that Erwin had to stop. 

Staring with wide eyes, Erwin watched in amazement as the creature hurried over to the sidewalk to....to  _ pause  _ in front of the street, its ensuing actions causing whatever assumptions Erwin had made about this being a normal animal to immediately disappear into thin air. The reasoning for that, he thought right away, was the fact that when Erwin saw the cat stop it had actually done so to seemingly  _ look both ways  _ as if to make sure there were no cars coming so it could cross the street. It’s head turned in one direction and then the other, Erwin saw, while its tail swished, and only after it was sure that the coast was clear did it finally cross, bounding across the road so that it could leap up onto the bench that rested in the grass just past the sidewalk. 

What the  _ fuck _ ? Erwin thought. Was he....was he  _ losing his mind _ , or had he just seen a cat consciously checking to make sure that it was safe to cross the street before actually doing so? No, he knew, that couldn’t have been what happened because it was just an animal and not a human, and it must have just stopped for some reason altogether, pausing and looking around in a way that made it  _ appear  _ that it might have been checking for cars. That had to be it, Erwin thought, because to think otherwise was absolutely ludicrous, and so after forcing himself to shake  _ that  _ encounter off, he resumed his original plan of looking to see if he saw anything strange in the alley.

Unsurprisingly at that point, he didn’t see anything, but after thinking about it for a moment, it kind of seemed less odd now that he had seen the cat.  _ It  _ had probably been what knocked over the trash cans, Erwin thought, which actually made sense, and which again made him wonder if all the things happening at his house were because of an animal instead of a ghost or a demon or whatever  _ other  _ ridiculous entities he had started to entertain — an idea that obviously made him feel at ease despite the unnerving things he’d experienced in town too.

Unfortunately, whatever comfort he’d managed to find just then only lasted a few minutes, because Erwin only got as far as another half-block before he started to feel that uncomfortable, eerie feeling again, the one that made him imagine there was something behind him watching his every move. Stopping in place once more, Erwin felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, barely managing to repress a shudder before he swallowed and stood up rigidly straight, steeling himself and practically holding his breath as he began to slowly and  _ carefully  _ turn around. 

Once he did so, all he saw was the black cat, perched like a statue on the bench and staring at it with its large, unblinking, and absolutely  _ piercing  _ grey eyes. 

  
  
  


  
  
  


Four days later, Erwin realized he’d been wrong about what he’d hoped for: the strange things happening around his house weren’t caused by a cat. Instead of that, they were caused by  _ multiple  _ cats, a dozen, he thought, or maybe even more, because he had since realized that the town was practically inundated with strays. It was something he’d noticed more and more after the incident with the trash cans, oddly enough, after he walked past the cafe around noon the next day for lunch and saw several of them rustling around in the alley. One rushed out while he was watching and disappeared behind a dumpster, and another jumped up onto a fire escape, the scrabbling sound it’s claws made on the metal audible from even across the street. After that, with cats on the brain more than they might normally be, Erwin started paying attention and saw that they weren’t just numerous in that spot either. 

No, he thought, the cats were  _ everywhere  _ — in the park, hiding in bushes or trees in groups of 4 or more, and around nearly all of the food and business establishments in town. Erwin saw them while he was shopping for groceries sometimes in the parking lot or as he was driving into work, the fleeting glimpses of their tails or back legs as they shrunk away more than enough to confirm that what he’d seen was a cat. At the library he caught two of them sunbathing on an outside picnic table around 10:00 A.M., while a group of kittens rolled around and played with each other underneath it. Once, he even saw one jumping down from the roof of a house in his neighborhood with several others behind it, and that was when Erwin knew his mysterious poltergeist had to actually just be a group of cats. 

Suddenly, he found, the frequency of tiny footsteps on his roof and scratching sounds on his walls and porch finally made sense when he had the thought that it was several animals instead of just one, as did the distant yowling — and most importantly — the butchered corpses of tiny animals that he often found lying around his yard. He’d even noticed some dead birds and squirrels in the park, too, that looked like they’d been....well, hunted and then toyed with by a cat, but unfortunately, realizing the source of his problems ended up just raising even more questions, like why were there so many cats running around in the first place?

How could there possibly be  _ this  _ many strays in such a small town? The proper part of the ‘city’ only consisted of 15 square blocks, and he didn’t even understand how so many cats could survive in the wild there. Were people feeding them? That was possible, he thought, but another strange thing was that he had barely seen anyone pay any attention to them. Sometimes it was like the citizens didn’t even see them, in fact, and no one seemed concerned or bothered that there were practically packs of stray cats roaming around the town at all hours of the day. 

Furthermore, where had they even come from? Didn’t the city have an animal control service? If so, shouldn’t it be doing something about all these poor cats? That was what Erwin wondered, but when he looked it up and called, the teenager who answered the phone informed him that their town, in fact, did  _ not  _ have a cat problem. The strays were citizens just like everyone else, and they did perfectly fine on their own in the outdoors without anyone meddling in their business. Puzzled by that response which made them sound like humans, Erwin did have to admit that for the most part, the cats  _ were  _ seemingly healthier and more well fed than the average homeless creature — even though the majority of them were clearly mostly feral. 

Those wanted nothing to do with him, but Erwin had been able to interact with some of the ones in the park a few times, taking it upon himself to buy a few cans of cat food and feed them  _ despite  _ what the kid at animal control had said. However, even though he knew he had the potential to make dozens of furry friends if he wanted to — and he wouldn’t mind, because he didn’t actually have a problem with cats when they weren’t making him think his house was haunted — there was one that he ended up finding himself strangely attached to a lot more than the others: the black cat, the first one he’d seen darting out of the alley that had stared at him so intently from across the street. 

Although he had to admit that it had creeped him out a bit at first, the next time he saw it — before he called animal control, actually, after he’d found himself wandering down to the cafe on his lunch break one work day. He’d intended to eat a sandwich there with a cup of coffee, but he’d instead ended up sitting on the bench across the road from the alleyway, finding himself easing down onto it slowly once he glimpsed the cat sitting across the road. It was in front of the trash cans, he saw, which had been righted again by someone, and was sitting in a perfectly straight upright position, its tiny paws planted onto the ground in front of it with its tail delicately curled around and over them. 

Again, Erwin noticed, it was watching him, and that, he supposed, was what made him have a seat and take his sandwich out there, unwrapping it and looking back at the cat before he took a bite. He wasn’t sure what he thought might happen — if anything — but unable to truly be afraid of a cat, his curiosity had again been piqued by the cat’s sharp eyes, by the memory of it’s oddly human behavior when Erwin had watched it cross the street a few days ago. Almost as if the animal could read his mind or something, Erwin was treated to a second display of what he’d been wondering had actually just been in his imagination ever since, when after a minute or two, the cat suddenly strode forward, stopping at the street all over again to look both ways before it bounded across and right up to Erwin’s feet. 

Pausing mid-bite, Erwin looked down at it with his brows raised, feeling slightly taken aback as he watched it sit back down onto its haunches right in front of him. It stared, of course, with what Erwin could now see as clear, grey eyes, its head resting above a white patch on his chest and two front paws of the same color that he hadn’t noticed before. Behind it, its tail swished, and Erwin blinked once before he offered it a small piece of cheese on a whim. Surprisingly, it did not shy away when he held the food out on one finger and instead just sniffed him, stepping forward when it apparently liked what it smelled so that it could knock the cheese off with one quick motion from its tongue.

It fell to the ground, and the cat devoured it quickly, immediately walking around the bench so that it could jump up onto the back of it afterward. It delicately stepped along the thin edge of wood and made its way behind Erwin’s head, and it was at that point that he realized the cat was male — there was no denying that fact, he thought in amusement because of what was basically being stuck in his face right then — and that his behavior was by far not the only strange thing about it. No, Erwin saw, now that he had a closer look after the cat jumped down from the back of the bench and sat down next to him, his eyes were not that of all the others that Erwin had seen around the town. 

Instead of that, they were almost human, the pupils rounded and the irises distinctly visible from the rest of the eye, and as the animal stared at him — noticeably looking him up and down in a way that another person might do — Erwin got the feeling that he was being sized up. It was a bit unnerving, he thought, but none of his hairs raised in the way that they’d been often doing when other, weirder things had happened, and so he just bit into his sandwich, finding himself raising an eyebrow at the cat when he licked his chops and suddenly flicked his tail impatiently. Did he want more food? Assuming so, Erwin pulled off a piece of turkey this time and laid it on the bench, watching as the cat practically gobbled that up too and then looked up at him expectantly for another bite. 

“Are you going to leave enough lunch for me?” Erwin found himself murmuring to him then, idly speaking in the way that people often did to their pets without even thinking about what they were saying. He smiled in amusement as he did so and gave his new lunch companion a generous helping of turkey, cheese, and bread, one that Erwin felt should be  _ more  _ than enough to satisfy the cat’s appetite. “Too much of it might turn you into a big, fat cat, you know.”

Although Erwin had just been talking nonsensically, the animal in front of him apparently took some kind of issue with his words. In fact, he reacted as if he had actually understood just what it was that Erwin had said, because immediately after he’d spoken he tore his gaze away from the food to look back up directly into Erwin’s eyes, his tail flicking sharply behind him as he flattened his ears and narrowed his eyes and then raised his tiny cheeks up a bit over his teeth in a way that  _ wrinkled his nose.  _ All in all, unless Erwin was crazy which was kind of possible at this point, the expression that the cat was making seemed to indicate that he did  _ not  _ appreciate  _ anything  _ about Erwin’s comment, and with the sudden feeling that he’d done something to offend, Erwin reached out as if to pet him in apology. 

Before he could do so, however, the cat hissed at him quite fiercely and then picked up the food in his mouth, the threatening sound turning into a muffled, irritated growl that came from somewhere low in his throat. He jumped off the bench like that abruptly, and in the next second he was gone, having run off and left Erwin on the bench, stunned and feeling like a veritable door had just been slammed in his face. What the hell had just happened, he wondered? He felt confused, of course, and concern because of the possibility that he might be losing his mind, but more than that there was curiosity, an interest in the strange cat that he felt he couldn’t really explain. 

Probably it was just because of the fact that he  _ couldn’t  _ explain it, and it was just so....odd to begin with along with the other weird things that he’d seen in this town, and unable to stop thinking about it, Erwin found himself coming back to the bench the next day, and the next. He did so in the hopes that he would see the black cat again, of course, and amazingly enough, despite the fact that they’d had a bit of a rocky start, he was  _ not  _ disappointed. Again he approached Erwin from across the street and again Erwin fed him pieces of his lunch on the day after, this time reminding himself not to make any rude comments about the cat’s weight so that he wouldn’t end up offending him. 

It was ridiculous, he thought, to even think of something like that, but he found that he couldn’t help it, and he found that he stopped questioning the cat’s human-like qualities the more that he interacted with him. Instead, Erwin just marveled at them — at how sometimes when he stared at something Erwin imagined he could actually see him  _ thinking _ , at how he seemed to respond when Erwin spoke to him each time, too, in his own way, of course, and at how he just acted as if he understood things that cats shouldn’t in addition to knowing how to cross the street, like when Erwin had the last bite of sandwich his meal was done and that stepping in mud would get his paws dirty, and that Erwin came to visit him at the exact same time every single day. 

Erwin suspected he’d figured that out fairly quickly because he was always nearby, but on his seventh lunch break at the bench he found his feline acquaintance actually waiting on him, already sitting in front of the seat for the first time before Erwin had even approached. By then, he thought, he’d become more familiar with the cat and felt that they had actually started to become something like friends, and he couldn’t deny that he was a bit delighted to see him there, resting on his haunches like he often did and looking in his direction expectantly as he reached the bench. Smiling as he sat down, he leaned over to watch as he was treated to the furry thing rubbing himself against his legs for a moment, remaining still before he then lowered a hand towards him, holding it out for the cat to sniff for a moment before he finally spoke. 

“Hello.” He murmured, waiting until the cat meowed back in greeting like he’d started doing — a soft  _ mrow  _ that had Erwin nearly melting that day, because he had to admit that he’d grown fond of the kitten too, and found a lot of what he did to be....well,  _ adorable  _ — and then headbutted his palm, a sure sign that Erwin had been given permission to scratch behind his ears. Gently, Erwin did just that with his fingers and was then allowed to pet him all down his back, smiling to himself again at how the cat’s eyes went lidded at the rubdown in a way that clearly indicated he liked it. “How are you today, hm? Does that feel good?”

As a result of his words, Erwin suddenly found himself with a lapful of black and white fur, something that took him aback for a second because his friend had never done  _ that  _ before. Usually, he thought, he stayed on the ground or jumped up onto the bench without stepping all over him, but he didn’t mind it. In fact, it was just another sign that the cat was feeling more and more comfortable with him, something that had, of course, happened gradually over the past week after Erwin managed to earn forgiveness for his earlier verbal faux pas. It had been two days after that before the cat had allowed Erwin to pet him, in fact, and then another three before he’d actually started to give him some affection back. 

Now, clearly, he trusted Erwin enough so that he was not afraid to make it clear that he wanted attention, something that was obvious by the way he’d just jumped into his lap and then rubbed his hand against Erwin’s outstretched arm. He was purring, too, Erwin noticed, and he couldn’t deny that the cat’s friendliness made his heart warm. He missed having a pet like this, he thought, as he had never found it in him to replace the dog he’d grown up with that had eventually passed away. Now, though, he wasn’t afraid to admit that he wouldn’t mind having this cat in his home permanently — he already hated the thought of him living outside too, despite the fact that he seemed well-fed and his fur was as shiny as any other house cat’s — but he wasn’t foolish or inconsiderate enough to assume that he could just do that without  _ at least  _ asking the little furball for permission.

“Do you like that?” Erwin murmured absentmindedly, as he stroked the cat’s back again and then began to rub his sides with both hands — completely uncaring that he was probably getting black and white fur all over his suit. “How would you like to come home with me one day? You’ll have all the turkey you can eat, and a warm bed. Plus, I’ll pet you like this whenever you want.”

While speaking, Erwin watched the cat closely for any reaction. He had come to expect them so much as this point that he’d almost forgotten how strange and uncannily human his communication was in the first place, and just felt pleased when he received a happy sounding ‘chirp’ in response. It seemed to come from somewhere inside the cat’s chest, and melded back into his low purr that gradually grew louder as Erwin continued to rub at him with his fingers. Sliding one palm up so that he could scratch under his chin, Erwin couldn’t help but smile warmly again when the cat leaned into his touch. It was cute, he mused, and the little thing was turning out to be more charming than he’d let on at first, and perhaps without really thinking about it, one thought popped into his head that, because he had come to understand the cat’s personality a bit, he perhaps should have hesitated a bit before saying out loud: “You really are quite the needy little thing, aren’t you?”

_ Oops. _ Erwin realized his mistake right away, when the animal that had been so….well, sweet with him a few moments ago seemed to actually bristle, his eyes opening back up as he pulled his head out from underneath Erwin’s palm. In the span of one single second he had slapped a paw down on top of his arm, too, and dug his claws into his skin through the clothing — not that hard, Erwin thought, but enough for him to feel it and consider it a warning along with the accompanying, high whine-slash-growl that came from inside the cat’s throat. 

“Ah, alright.” Erwin said, unable to chuckle despite himself at what had just happened. Clearly, he’d done something to offend again, but thankfully this time his friend had not hissed and run off, his expression only changing into that familiar high-cheeked, wrinkled nose one that caused Erwin to have the distinct impression he was being scowled at. That, in addition to the subtle clawing and the manner in which he now bit — or nibbled, really — at the tip of Erwin’s finger when he tried to pet him again in apology, was all he did to express his displeasure. “Alright, I get it. I’m sorry. Forgive me?”

Flicking his tail, the cat seemed to consider Erwin’s words for a moment before he pulled back and abruptly gave the side of his thumb a small lick, an obvious sign of forgiveness if Erwin had ever seen one. Then, he stepped down from his lap and sat next to him on the bench, and eyed the bag he had sitting next to him that they both knew had his food in it.

“Ready for lunch?” Erwin asked at that, getting an answer in the form of the cat licking his chops. 

By then, Erwin had started bringing along extra turkey and cheese so that he wouldn’t be heading back to work without a full meal, and removed each from the sealed baggies he’d brought it all in for the cat. Like that, they ate together while seated on the bench like a pair of actual humans, a comfortable sense of companionship passing over Erwin despite the fact that neither of them spoke, or....well,  _ meowed _ . It was routine by then, Erwin thought, and he had realized days ago that he enjoyed it, and as he finished his lunch, he again began to idly think about what he really would have to do to bring the cat home with him. 

Should he just...take him? Was it that easy? No one else owned the cat so he supposed it was, but regardless, he would need to make a few preparations at his home anyway. Erwin would need to buy him food — some  _ real  _ cat food — and a bed and some toys to make sure that he’d be coming into the ideal environment when Erwin brought him home, all of which made him more excited to go shopping than he had been in a long time. It was nice, he thought, to feel that way about something there finally after he’d had such an odd and disconcerting first three weeks in the town, too, glad that he’d found something to distract him from it so much that he’d even begun to think he’d perhaps just been being paranoid.

Perhaps, he thought, he’d just blown everything up in his mind because he’d had nothing else to do, but regardless, he was thankful that things had calmed down a bit for him, that he was finally beginning to settle in so that he could focus on his job and making friends. That being said, he recalled that he’d been invited to a Halloween party by his co-workers a few days ago, as it was, in fact, October 30th by then and the holiday was tomorrow, finding himself leaning in the direction of actually going. He hadn’t planned on it before because he hadn’t been feeling in much of a social mood lately, but his newfound cheerfulness had apparently changed that, and while sitting there, he even began thinking about what he would dress as. 

Before he could decide, his thoughts were interrupted by the cat — Erwin would have to name him, he thought, when he brought him home — who suddenly perked up from where he’d started to clean himself. He’d been licking his paw and rubbing it across his face in one of the most adorable manners Erwin had ever seen, in fact, but he stopped so abruptly and all but launched himself off the bench that it caught Erwin’s eye. Raising a brow, he held his tie down when a sudden gust of wind blew his hair and sent dozens of dead leaves swirling down the sidewalk, the front page of a newspaper all but flying by too which was apparently what the cat was heading for. Much to his amazement, despite everything else he’d seen from the cat, his potential new pet ran over in the next second and all but leapt on top of it.

He pressed his paws down on it, Erwin saw, as if he was holding it down so that it wouldn’t blow away, but even that was not as startling as what the cat did next: after sniffing the paper excitedly, he stared down at the words for several, fascinatingly long seconds as if he could read them, and then looked back at Erwin one more time while he flicked his tail. Pawing at the paper, he held Erwin’s gaze like that for a few seconds, his eyes boring into him so piercingly that he suddenly found the hair on the back of his neck standing up again, and eventually glanced away before he bounded across the street to enter the alleyway —  _ after  _ he had looked both ways to check for cars, of course. Left sitting there after the cat had disappeared inside of it, Erwin was aware of the confused expression on his face, his brows drawn down and his mouth practically hanging open too at what he had just witnessed. 

What had  _ that  _ been about? What had caused the cat to run off? Had it been something he’d seen on the newspaper, and was Erwin really, honestly of the belief that he could read and understand what was written on it in the first place? No, he thought,  _ no _ , of course not. That was ridiculous —  _ all  _ of this was ridiculous, and  _ all  _ he’d found was a smarter-than-the-average cat, he told himself, not some strange, magical, other-worldly one or whatever could lead to it acting so human — but still, even after his heart stopped pounding and a solid five minutes of trying to explain what he’d just seen, Erwin couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow, some way, the black cat that he’d become friends with had been trying to tell him something. 

Perhaps it was the way he’d stared at Erwin so intently and pawed at the paper that made him think that, or perhaps there was just something wrong with his brain. Maybe, he thought, he was even dreaming, but if so, this was a pretty long one and he wondered when the hell he would wake up. Regardless, he was too curious to keep himself from getting up eventually, rising off the bench so that he could walk over and pick up the paper. Holding it out in front of him, he determined after a quick scan that there was nothing particularly unusual about the page the cat had been looking at; instead, it just seemed to be a typical menagerie of local news stories, articles about the weather, and because of the time of year, an advertisement for whatever Halloween activities the city had planned. 

The only hint to what the cat might have been interested in, Erwin saw —  _ hypothetically _ , of course — were some scratch marks from his paw situated right over where the date was printed in the top right-hand corner, directly above a small opinion piece that argued ‘the witches should not be allowed to congregate in the park,’ a sight which caused him to frown thoughtfully but eventually fold the newspaper up a few moments later. Tucking it underneath his arm, he stood up straight and went back to the bench to throw his trash away, his mind once again full of questions about strange things that he did not understand. Apparently the peacefulness that Erwin had thought he’d found was going to be short-lived, he thought, and as if to symbolise that, the wind gusted by once more so strongly that he was nearly knocked off his feet, and he heard a long, low yowl echoing from across the road and inside the alley. 

As he walked off, his hair stood on end, and without turning around this time, he knew there was a pair of glowing, grey eyes situated somewhere in the distance behind him.

  
  
  


  
  
  


That afternoon, Erwin found it hard to get back to work — especially with the paper sitting on the edge of his desk. He’d brought it with him and set it there, perhaps foolishly, and kept looking up and remembering the strange incident with the cat, finding that the mention of witchcraft just reminded him of all the supernatural thoughts he’d had at the beginning. He wasn’t superstitious though, he  _ wasn’t  _ and he reminded himself that he never had been, but again, the thought of something unexplainable just did not sit well with him. He had to be missing something, he thought, and with that in mind, he ended up going down to the basement of his work place before he left for the day, making his way over to the large archive cabinet where he’d found the interesting artifact a few weeks ago.

It was a diary he’d discovered, one that was several hundred years old and that was practically falling apart from its poor preservation — something that made Erwin frown, along with the fact that it seemed to have been basically thrown away and shoved into the back of the drawer like garbage. Although he now had plans to conserve it with modern materials so that the pages might be protected, he hadn’t gotten to it yet, and as a result of the neglect the pages were practically falling apart and whoever handled it would have to be exceedingly careful. That being said, Erwin had no plans to take it out of the basement, and instead stood there in front of the cabinet underneath the dim lighting, tense even as he opened it to the pages he’d looked at before because of how thin the paper was. 

Even the gentlest touch seemed as if it could turn bits of it into dust, he thought, but after setting it on a table, Erwin managed to find the entry that he’d scanned before which...well, which contained the variations of the word ‘witch,’ along with several other interesting sentences that Erwin had not been able to completely decipher yet. Now, though, despite the faded ink and the near illegible 17th century cursive, while squinting at it he thought he could make out a few lines describing some sort of ceremony, along with something about worshipping a goddess and following ‘the old ways,’ and what looked like a list of ingredients.

_ That  _ was interesting, Erwin thought, because this diary was from the late 1600’s — a time period where monotheistic religion had been first and foremost in the region for decades. In fact, it was essentially mandatory because of unchecked persecution for anything else, and it was odd to see even a hint of something that might be pagan mentioned anywhere. That was what the word ‘goddess’ indicated to Erwin, anyway, and it had him recalling the ancient history of the town, the parts where the village it had been founded upon had actually once been a pagan site of worship for a religion based around deities who happened to be women.

Was there a connection, Erwin wondered? Was whoever wrote this diary a witch — or at least, someone who had been accused of being a witch? If so, he figured it was likely that they’d met the same unfortunate, fiery fate that so many others of their kind had in a time period where the fear of witchcraft was especially prevalent in the area. Regardless of that, was it possible that there were those in the village who had held onto its original pagan beliefs even after so much time, and passed their knowledge down each generation so that they continued even today? That seemed a fanciful thought, Erwin mused, and extremely unlikely, but the mention of witchcraft in the newspaper made him wonder. Obviously, he knew that their were those who practiced it in modern times, of course, but the fact that it was in this town and so casually discussed in comparison to other places seemed  _ more  _ than strange.

Either way, his deep thoughts were interrupted when the lights suddenly flickered and a loud, abrupt,  _ cracking  _ sound from outside the building made him jump about ten feet into the air, his mind only realizing that it had been thunder after he’d looked towards the basement entrance with wide eyes. It was dark down there, he thought, and a bit chilly and silent, and despite the fact that it was silly, he actually began to feel a bit uneasy. Swallowing, he shook his head and placed the diary back in it’s cabinet, closing the drawer and locking it back up before he hastily made his way back upstairs to his desk — but not before snapping a few pictures of the pages with his cell phone in case he wanted to look at it again later.

There, in his office, he tried to get back to work again with the lightning and thunder continuing above him — there was a storm coming through, apparently — and the rain pelting against his windows, but barely succeeded like before, finding that his mind was still fixated on the mystery that he had perhaps just created for himself. Wasn’t it possible that he was reading too much into things? It was, he knew, but what about the stray cats? What about  _ his  _ cat? What about the theme of witchcraft that seemed to be subtly popping up throughout the ages, and the strange, unnerving feeling about the town in general?

No night before had it been so strong as it was when Erwin left work to drive home, finding that his entire body was rigid with tension as he squinted out the window and struggled to see through the storm. Even with his windshield wipers running at full speed he could barely make out anything in front of him, and so he told himself it was the storm that was making him feel so uneasy, ignoring the fact that the ever-present silence was more heavy than usual and that there seemed to be electricity in the air, too, an aura, almost, that made him feel on edge as if something was about to happen that he wasn’t ready for. 

It persisted even when he made his way into the suburbs and into his house, and while Erwin had thought he’d grown to live with them and been unbothered with the surely cat-induced noises all week, he now seemed to hear every one, unable to  _ not  _ feel unnerved when the loud scratching sounded out at his door or the yowling began in the distance. That night, for whatever reason, it seemed almost constant, and on top of that, the cats began to meow, too, and to race across the top of his roof so fast that it sounded like they were actually galloping. The fact that it was still pouring down rain made all of this seem unusual, he thought, because weren’t cats supposed to hate getting wet?

Most of them did, he knew, but honestly, by the time he decided to try and go to bed, he was too tired to bother trying to make sense of anything anymore. He wanted to sleep, he thought, but the noises distracted him, and when he finally  _ did  _ drift off all he saw was a pair of glowing, grey eyes surrounded by darkness, the sight causing him to wake up with a start — or maybe that was the loud, sudden sounds, reminiscent of the incident he’d witnessed outside the alley, of his trash cans being violently knocked over in the driveway. Unfortunately, that along with his dream caused him to feel such a surge of irritation that he contemplated going outside to try to find a way to chase them off, but a bolt of lightning that lit up his house in the next second immediately  quashed that idea. Instead, he just decided to give up on sleep and to find something else to do that would distract him, like playing loud music or watching television on the couch with the volume turned all the way up in an effort to drown out anything else.

Thankfully, about thirty minutes before midnight it seemed to get better along with the storm, and as the clock struck 12:00 Erwin felt he might be able to finally fall asleep for good. The cats had stopped screaming and having the apparent time of their lives around his house, he noticed, and the lightning and thunder and howling wind, too, had lessened into a light rain that might actually be soothing to him, and with relief in his belly, he finally made his way off the couch and into the bathroom so that he could brush his teeth. He’d done so before, of course, but he’d eaten a snack while he’d been watching television and needed to do it again, feeling his eyelids begin to become heavy while he stood in front of the mirror.

He was going to be exhausted in the morning, he thought, but at least he would hopefully get some sleep before the night was over — a notion that he unfortunately found dashed all of a sudden when something else happened, something that caused him to freeze with a handful of toothpaste in his mouth and to stand straight up, his eyes widening out of alarm because....because it was not normal for his doorbell to ring in the middle of the night. The loud, resonating sound of it seemed to echo around his house in an eerie way as if to reflect how uneasy such a thing made Erwin, and he stood there for a moment, facing his reflection in the mirror while his toothbrush hung out from between his lips haphazardly.

He was practically clenching his teeth around it, he realized a second later, because he’d become so rigid with tension in virtually a split second, and bent to spit out the toothpaste that was still in his mouth before he turned around to face the doorway. Although it was dark and he could only see the top of the stairs from where he was standing, Erwin found himself unsure of what to do. Who could possibly be ringing his doorbell at midnight on Halloween, he thought? Obviously, it wasn’t a  _ cat _ because they couldn’t do that — a thought which left him feeling highly suspicious and uneasy. Glancing back at himself in the mirror for a few moments, he wondered whether or not he should answer it, his hesitance apparently causing whoever was on his front porch to become impatience and ring the bell again a few moments later. 

At that, Erwin decided he was more curious than afraid, although he certainly had plenty of thoughts swirling about in his head about whether or not he was about to be murdered. That was the first thing he’d thought of, naturally, but who would want to murder him? Some serial killer who happened to hate blonde men for whatever reason? Erwin supposed it was possible, but then again, why had he rung his doorbell? Waiting another few moments, Erwin eventually crept out of his bathroom and made his way down the stairs quietly, holding his toothbrush in his hand still like a weapon while his bare feet occasionally made the wood creak. Each sound made him tense up as if it was possible for his potential killer to hear him coming from the outside, something which he obviously didn’t want, and which made him freeze again when he reached the last step and saw a shadow lying across his front porch outside a nearby window. 

Before he could figure out if it came from a person or not — he had blinds, and it was hard to tell even with his porch lights having been left on — his gaze was torn from the sight back to the door when he heard a soft knock, a quieter sound than the doorbell, obviously, but one that was not any less alarming or concerning, as it became clear to him that whoever was on the other side was apparently not going to go away and accept that he wasn’t going to answer. Perhaps he would have to chase them off, he thought, and so after swallowing, he eyed a large umbrella he’d left by the door before grabbing it to hold for protection, pausing for another moment to position himself at the side of it before he took a deep breath and spoke.

“Who’s there?” He asked, raising his voice and averting his gaze towards the window again. 

At his question, the shadow wavered in place and Erwin was able to make out a head and shoulders and arms this time, the sight causing him to instinctively place a hand on his door as if he feared whoever was on the other side was going to try to force their way in.

“I’m not gonna hurt you.” It said instead, though, it’s tone somehow sounding irritated even through wood and rain and Erwin’s loudly pounding pulse. “I didn’t before, so just open up. It’s fucking cold out here, and I’m wet.”

_ Before? _ Perturbed at that, Erwin raised a brow and again glanced back towards the door. Eyeing it, and then the lock, his mind raced while he struggled to make sense of what he had just heard and of what was going on. Obviously, he knew, whoever stood on the other side of the door could be lying to him and waiting with an axe or a knife in hand to stab him with despite their words, and opening it would probably be stupid. Still, though, the fact that the person had spoken as if they had met already was something he couldn’t ignore, especially considering that he was pretty sure none of his co-workers — the only people he’d even slightly befriended since he’d moved there — would be showing up on his doorstep at midnight, as they didn’t even actually know where he lived. 

That probably should have made it seem even more foolish to open the door, but for some reason, Erwin found himself drawn to the voice, calmed a bit by it, even, and reassured that his dead body wasn’t about to be on the morning news as the object of the latest mystery. Above all of that, though, he still felt curious, and while thinking that it would likely one day be the death of him, Erwin found his handing moving towards the doorknob, cursing his lack of peephole but undoing the lock anyway so that he could crack it open enough to peek outside. Holding the umbrella tightly in one hand as he did so and his toothbrush in his other, Erwin nearly ended up dropping both when he finally saw the person that was standing on his porch.

That said a lot considering he had no idea who — or what, really — to expect, he thought, but the sight of a small man dressed in fanciful period clothing with  _ cat ears and a tail  _ was enough to thoroughly render him still. In fact, he was speechless and shocked, staring with wide eyes at the figure on his porch and wondering if he was seeing him right. Had he gone insane? Was he dreaming? Erwin didn’t know, but as soon as the man spoke again, he felt a sense of recognition, nearly dropping his toothbrush on the ground as he found himself questioning his wits even more.  

“Hey, big guy. Remember me?”

Drawing his brows down tightly at that, Erwin naturally found his gaze sweeping over the man after his question before he could even help it. He took him in from head to toe and eventually ended up resting his eyes on his face so that they locked with the mysterious stranger’s, and it was then that Erwin nearly felt his heart stop in his chest all over again, realizing right away that they were clear, grey, and  _ obviously  _ familiar in way that struck him so hard he abruptly shook his head in denial. 

“I…” Erwin uttered, thoroughly at a loss for words. It was something he wasn’t used to, he thought, but no one would surely blame him when he found himself stunned by the sudden thought that the man on his porch reminded him of the cat —  _ his  _ cat — who he ate lunch with, and who had interested him so much with it’s curious, human-like behavior. “I…you... _ what?” _

“I guess that’s a ‘yes.” The man said at that, snorting and raising an eyebrow of his own as if he found Erwin’s reaction to be amusing. 

He crossed his arms, too, from where he’d been holding them at his sides and looked up at Erwin, who still had not managed to get his thoughts together enough to do anything else but stand there. How could he, when the more he looked at the man the more he reminded him of the cat? Obviously, the ears jutting from black, silky hair and the tail swishing behind him might have regardless, but it was more than that, Erwin thought, it was all of him — mostly starting with his eyes. Erwin had noticed  _ that  _ right away, of course, but even his expression reminded him of the cat’s, as did his clothing, especially the white cravat and gloves he wore that matched his furry friend’s chest and front paws. 

It was ridiculous, but it was uncanny somehow, and the fact that he was wearing clothes that could have been from the 18th century — he wore a white shirt underneath a black vest and a long coat, it's lacy sleeves visible right above his gloved hands, and pants that stopped around his knees while the rest of his legs were covered in dark, leather riding boots — obviously made it clear that this was no normal man anyway. In fact, he looked like he’d time traveled from another world, Erwin thought, or come out of a museum, but he  _ couldn’t  _ have. Was this just some sort of elaborate Halloween costume, or a prank? If it was, someone had gone through a lot of trouble just to mess with him, but Erwin had no idea who would even do such a thing. 

Besides, as much as he kept trying to tell himself that this man...cat...cat-man? couldn’t be real, he was, and he was standing there damp and dripping wet like he’d said, the sour expression on his face and the way that he flicked his tail irritably no doubt coming from a sense of discomfort. For some reason, it was that which caused Erwin to finally snap out of the astonished daze he’d found himself in and to step to the side, his manners perhaps absurdly kicking in because he  _ at least _ figured if he was going to be murdered than he probably would have been by then. 

In fact, he’d gotten the feeling that this wasn’t anything like that because it was just too  _ bizarre _ , too  _ unexplainable  _ to be anything criminal, and again, he couldn’t deny that his inquisitiveness was quickly replacing any hesitance he might have had about interacting with the stranger on his porch. If he wasn’t a murderer, Erwin thought, then what was he? Who was he, really, and why had he come to his home in the middle of the night? Furthermore, was there any end to the surprises that this town continued to throw at him?

Erwin didn’t know, but one thing was for certain: after everything he had experienced, he was starting to accept the fact that the explanation — and the man on his porch, for that matter — just might not, after all, be something that fit into his definition of logical.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re…”
> 
> “The cat.”
> 
> “The cat?”
> 
> “Yeah, the cat from before. I ate with you on the bench. Come on, I know you fucking remember.”
> 
> “I do. I remember my cat, but—
> 
> “Your cat?” Levi uttered at that, scoffing as he raised an eyebrow and fixed Erwin with an ‘oh, really?’ look, one that had his mouth falling open all over again.
> 
> “Ah...I mean…” Erwin practically blurted, raising his hands — toothbrush included — as if to offer an apology because of what he’d just said. Why was he, though? Did he actually believe what Levi was saying? He wasn’t sure, not at all, but he definitely felt deja vu when Levi flicked his tail sharply and made a sort of disgruntled chiding sound in response, exactly in the way that his feline friend might have growled at him and expressed irritation when he’d said something to offend. It was uncanny, Erwin thought, but it was a bit disconcerting too, and his confusion and awe and the implications of what he’d just said if Levi really was the cat had him feeling an uncharacteristic sort of flusteredness that even he wasn’t sure how to handle. “I....sorry?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey everyone, sorry about the delay with this. i've been having a hard time with writer's block/depression so i got stuck for a while...i'm feeling better now (or at least i've managed to work on it some) but because this is going to end up so long i decided to make it more than two parts, and to go ahead and post another part of it now ALSO because i'm worried i'll get stuck again @.@ but here's part 2, and i just wanted to thank everyone for reading my stuff and for all the comments and kudos <3

“Thanks.” The man told Erwin, after he’d stepped inside and closed the door behind them. “I’m Levi.”

“Levi.” Erwin repeated, finding that it was impossible for him not to stare even though he knew it was rude — not when he now had a closer view of the top of the man’s head and his cat ears, anyway, which decidedly looked just as real as the rest of him did.

“Yeah. You have toothpaste on your chin.”

Drawing his brows down in confusion — he was taken aback for a second again, as Levi’s comment was out of the blue — Erwin then hastily reached up to wipe his chin off with the back of one hand, sparing it only a moment of actual thought because he was far too preoccupied with what was going on to be concerned or embarrassed about it. “You’re…” 

“The cat.”

“The cat?”

“Yeah, the cat from before. I ate with you on the bench. Come on, I know you fucking remember.”

“I do. I remember my cat, but—

“ _ Your _ cat?” Levi uttered at that, scoffing as he raised an eyebrow and fixed Erwin with an ‘oh, really?’ look, one that had his mouth falling open all over again. 

“Ah...I mean…” Erwin practically blurted, raising his hands — toothbrush included — as if to offer an apology because of what he’d just said. Why was he, though? Did he actually believe what Levi was saying? He wasn’t sure, not at all, but he definitely felt deja vu when Levi flicked his tail sharply and made a sort of disgruntled chiding sound in response, exactly in the way that his feline friend might have growled at him and expressed irritation when he’d said something to offend. It was uncanny, Erwin thought, but it was a bit disconcerting too, and his confusion and awe and the implications of what he’d just said if Levi really  _ was  _ the cat had him feeling an uncharacteristic sort of flusteredness that even he wasn’t sure how to handle. “I....sorry?”

In direct contrast of Erwin’s internal struggle, Levi nonchalantly shrugged one shoulder. “Whatever. I get it. Listen, I'll explain this shit in a minute; do you have any tea? And a towel?” 

“Yes.” Erwin replied, finding himself relaxing a bit and nodding resolutely at Levi’s question. This, he thought, he could do. This he understood, as making a guest comfortable in his home was thankfully something  _ normal _ . “Yes, I do. Ah...come to the kitchen.”

“Okay.” Levi uttered, following Erwin as if all of this was the most natural thing in the world. 

Without being prompted, he sat down at the table while Erwin went to dig around in his cabinets to try and find where he’d put his teapot after the move — an already difficult task that was made even more difficult because he couldn’t stop looking over his shoulder at the man in his kitchen. Thankfully, he was oblivious to Erwin’s staring, and he watched as Levi took off his gloves carefully, placing them on the table before he held up his hands and flexed his fingers slowly. 

He looked at them like that for a few moments, Erwin saw, as if he hadn’t actually seen his own palms in weeks or even months, which was a thought that had him drawing his brows down because it seemed a little significant. Before he had a chance to really mull over it, though, he felt his own fingers brush up against the teapot, right as Levi turned around to stare directly at him so suddenly that Erwin  _ could  _ have dropped it. 

“You’re Erwin, right?” He asked, a question which indicated he hadn’t noticed how Erwin had been looking at him, and that also had Erwin’s interest raised. 

“Yes. How did you know that?”

“I saw your name and address that time you brought your bills to lunch. What’s….uh, I don’t know how to say it: a ‘mort-gauge?’

“A mortgage?” Erwin asked, standing there completely wide-eyed at the things he’d just heard. 

Levi knew about when he’d used his lunch break to balance his bank account. He’d gotten his name off his bills. He’d read the letter he remembered holding about when his first mortgage payment was due. How? The only explanation was that he was the cat, like he said, but it was insane. So was the way he was dressed, and how he didn’t even know what a mortgage was. The way he had pronounced it made that more than obvious, Erwin thought, which along with his clothes, again made Erwin feel like he’d just dropped out of the sky all of a sudden from the 1700s.

“It’s a type of loan that you get to buy a house.” Erwin explained, swallowing despite his racing thoughts because Levi was looking at him expectantly.

“A loan? So you have to pay it back?”

“Yes.”

“What happens if you don’t? Do you go to jail?”

“Ah...no, not usually. If you can’t make your payments, the bank will repossess the house. Then, your credit score will be ruined, and—

“What’s a credit score?” Levi interrupted, his question again causing Erwin to widen his eyes.

Instead of answering him this time, though, he just shook his head, a bewildered sort of expression crossing his face because of how baffling this was. “How do you not know these things?”

He couldn’t help but ask, he thought. He knew Levi had said he would explain, but he hadn’t yet, and he found that nearly a hundred questions continued to be raised every second that he interacted with this man — and saw his cat ears and tail, which nearly distracted him from anything else each time he laid eyes on them. Right then, they had flattened a bit on his head and were twitching irritably behind him, respectively, which were actions that reflected the way Levi suddenly frowned at the questions, his shoulders stiffening with a noticeable tension too as he turned back around to face the table. 

“Are you going to get the tea?” He mumbled, his words and now off-putting demeanor causing Erwin to frown, but fill the pot with water anyway.

After he set it on the stove to heat up, he left his guest in the kitchen — almost not even caring that it might not be wise, at this point, because his mind had already reached it’s limit of things to worry about — to go find a towel, wondering if Levi might need more than that depending on how wet his clothes really were. He’d left a trail of water behind him when he’d walked in, Erwin remembered, and although he hadn’t been shivering, he had to be cold, as he knew more than anyone that his house tended to be drafty and a bit chilly. Despite that, though, he wasn’t sure what he should offer Levi. A blanket? A change of clothes? That seemed a bit intimate for someone he didn’t know, but it would be polite, and despite everything, he found that he didn’t want his guest to be uncomfortable even if he didn’t know anything about him.

Still, he waited until he’d made the tea and discreetly watched Levi dry off, sneaking peeks from the stove while he rubbed the towel over his head and then stood up to take his coat off. He laid it over the back of his chair and then undid his cravat and vest, shoving the cloth underneath his shirt in a likely attempt to soak up any dampness that had accumulated there. When he did so, Erwin saw, he pulled at the front of it and caused a sliver of pale skin to be revealed on his back and side, a sight that caused Erwin to twist around quickly as if he’d seen something he shouldn’t have. 

Although a shirtless man was nothing Erwin hadn’t already glimpsed before, he felt like he needed to give Levi privacy for some reason, finding that it seemed different when they were in Erwin’s house and Levi was virtually a stranger. It didn’t help, either, when the stranger was an admittedly attractive one despite how odd he also was because Erwin was  _ only  _ human, and now that the tea was about ready, in fact, he wondered if he should leave the room in case he needed to dry off more sensitive areas or something first — also wondering why Levi couldn’t just do that in the bathroom, though — deciding that before he left, he would offer him a change of clothes like he’d thought about before because he was sure it would help the  _ both  _ of them be more comfortable. 

“Ah, Levi…” Erwin said then, clearing his throat from where he was now staring daggers down at the tea. “If you’d like, I can get you a change of clothes. I know you might not—

“Okay.” Levi interrupted, sounding so sure of what he wanted that Erwin turned around again to look at him. 

This time, he saw, Levi was twisted partially to face him too, and he'd removed his shirt so that he could wipe off his arms and shoulders. Unfortunately, he swiped the towel downward across his chest as soon as Erwin had moved to meet his gaze, and now he found himself unwittingly lowering his own — his eyes caught by the movement of the cloth — until he was looking at one perky, pink nipple. At that, he turned back around again so fast that it was probably a miracle he didn’t get whiplash, still somehow managing to catch sight of Levi biting his lip while he looked at him, which was an image that he had to  _ force  _ out of his head before he nodded. 

With his heart beating a little faster than normal, he set the teacups on the table — making sure to keep his eyes down — and then went to find a change of clothes for Levi, grabbing a clean, plain white t-shirt and a pair of running shorts in favor of pajama pants that he hoped would at least be wearable. The man was small, Erwin had naturally noticed, and over a foot shorter than him, and even if he  _ did  _ seem to be stocky and surprisingly muscled too Erwin didn’t think that would help much in the long run. Still, though, that was all he had and so it would just have to do, but thankfully, he figured that it wouldn’t matter much because Levi was probably just looking to get into something that was actually dry and comfortable anyway. 

Sure enough, he put on the clothing without complaint — after Erwin swallowed and turned around to let him do so, since he apparently had no qualms about stripping completely bare right there in the kitchen — and then settled back down into his seat at the table while Erwin sat across from him. Looking decidedly more normal now because of the t-shirt, Erwin thought, with the exception of his feline features, of course, he found himself noticing for the first time how young the man in front of him actually was.

Although the oversized clothing surely didn't help with that, after really looking him over again Erwin decided that he was probably in his early twenties. Erwin, on the other hand, was 36, but then again, it probably wouldn’t be proper of him to think of Levi as a kid, because being just 18 in the 1700s often came with the responsibility of someone Erwin's age. It wasn't like the present time where people continued to try and settle into real adult life well into their twenties, and had mortgages existed in the way they did now back then, Erwin imagined with a bit of amusement that Levi probably would have had one. 

_ If _ he was from the 18th century, anyway, which was something that Erwin felt less inclined to believe when he heard what came out of Levi’s mouth next. 

“Holy  _ shit _ .” He exclaimed after swallowing his first mouthful of tea, sounding for all intents and purposes  _ exactly  _ like the unruly twenty-somethings that sometimes came into the town’s historic center. 

In fact, nothing about the way he spoke so far actually lent credence to the thought that he was from an earlier time, which probably would have led Erwin to automatically discount all of this as bullshit if he hadn’t seen everything else. Pondering how it could all even possibly make sense, he watched Levi close his eyes as if he was savoring the tea and throw an arm over the back of his chair, leaning against it, too, before crossing his legs in what seemed to Erwin to be a clear picture of relaxation.

“Like the tea?” He asked at that, eyeing Levi intently for any more clues to his existence as he nodded.

“Yeah, shit. It’s been so damned long since I’ve had any like this. I think the last time I was able to get some was in 1840-fucking-6.”

“1846.” Erwin repeated blankly, apparently letting enough disbelief into his tone to ruin Levi’s state of bliss.

Cracking open his eyes, he frowned at Erwin for a few seconds before he sat up straight and then looked away, one of his ears twitching a bit while his tail lashed behind him in what seemed like irritation.

“Alright, fine.” He said though, sounding surprisingly calm before his face took on a thoughtful expression and he traced a finger around the rim of his teacup. “I’m...uh, I’m a shapeshifter, okay? I was born in 1714.”

“A shapeshifter?” Erwin asked, raising his brows. 

Naturally, because this was what he’d been waiting on, all of Erwin’s attention had focused on Levi when he’d started speaking, his eyes going wide and his own ears completely open so that he could take in all of his words. He’d even leaned over the table a bit, too, with an alert interest, but after Levi looked up at him and took him in with a decidedly doleful expression, he shrank back into his chair almost on instinct to give him some space.

“Yeah, sort of.”

“So....you can change back and forth into a cat, then?”

“Yeah, but not at will, and only on one night a year. This night.”

“Halloween?”

Levi nodded, a near-glare on his face now that was directed at the table. “Yeah. Because I was cursed. By a witch.”

“A witch.” Erwin repeated, more to himself than anything at that point, as that one, single word had basically been like a shock to his brain.

Suddenly, he felt a surge of excitement of all things too, a renewed, intense flash of interest that had everything to do with the fact that he’d just been researching that very thing. The cats, the unsettling atmosphere of the town, the diary, and  _ Levi _ ...was all of it connected like he’d briefly thought? It had to be, he knew; he was now almost sure of it. What was it, though? Was he ready to accept it if the explanation was something supernatural? He wasn’t sure, but either way, the inner historian inside of him was positively ecstatic to hear something like this, so much so that his eyes had gone unfocused and he’d apparently started smiling while he’d thought about it.

“What the hell are you smiling at?” Levi muttered when  _ he  _ noticed it, an unsettled sort of expression on his face that Erwin saw when he jerked his head back up.

“Ah...sorry.” He said, swallowing and eyeing Levi for a second, noticing his discomfort enough to decide he needed to explain. “It’s just...I’m a historian. I work here as one for the city, and I was researching witchcraft in the area just today.”

“Why?”

“Well...a few days ago, I thought this would’ve sounded crazy, but....it’s this town. It’s not normal. It feels off somehow, and I’ve noticed so many strange things. The cats— 

“It’s the magic.” Levi interrupted, his words causing Erwin to cock his head.

“The magic?”

“Yeah, this whole area is loaded with it. It’s because of the witches, and it gets really fucking bad the closer it is to Halloween”

“Wait, Levi.” Erwin said, finding that he was struggling a bit to keep up with all of this because of his swirling thoughts. “Are you saying that there are witches here  _ now?” _

“Yeah. There has been for centuries. Their beliefs are based on some old religion that says a goddess created the world. She was the original witch to them, and she gave them fractions of her power so that they could practice magic.”

“The religion from the village.” Erwin uttered, managing to bite back another smile at just how fascinating all of this was turning out to be — at least to him, because across the table Levi was still thoroughly unimpressed and on edge.

It wouldn’t be much longer before Erwin finally found out why.

“It’s been passed down since ancient times.” Levi continued to explain, pausing to take another sip of tea before he went silent, biting his lip as if he was chewing on his words. “And practiced in secret for the most part. My mother was a witch.”

“She was?” Erwin asked, the image of the diary from the late 17th century now popping into his mind. “Are you?”

“No. I know a few things from her, but no. Fuck no. Anyway, she was the leader of the coven in town at the time. They were being persecuted for a while, so obviously she had to practice her shit in secret. Basically, there was another witch under her who wanted her power. She tried to steal it a bunch of times and never could, so she told the people running the town that my mom was a witch and they burned her at the stake. Then, because that apparently wasn’t enough, she put a curse on all of her descendants, which was just me.”

“And...the curse is that you were turned into a cat, and only able to become human again once a year?”

“Yeah.” Levi muttered, scowling down at the table. “And even then, I’m not all the way human. I’m sure you’ve fucking noticed.”

As if to indicate what he meant — even though Erwin definitely understood — Levi twitched his ears and seemingly waved at Erwin with his tail, and suddenly, now that things were digesting, Erwin felt a little bad for him. Although it was hard for him to relate to for obvious reasons, the thought of being stuck in the body of a cat for 364 days a year was actually quite awful. It would basically be like living in prison, Erwin thought, trapped with limited access to the real world with the exception of one day out of the year, which was an idea that was far more cruel than it seemed on his face. 

True, Levi got some time to be a human again and to do whatever he'd wanted to that he couldn't before, Erwin thought, but that time was limited, and probably seemed fleeting in comparison to the rest of the days where he had to be a cat. Thus, because of all of that, he was doomed to only experience a small taste of freedom each year before he found it snatched away again, something that probably made everything he did during that time end up feeling mostly bittersweet.

Did the sympathy he for Levi mean he believed him, though?

That was the question, and although Levi had explained most of it, that didn’t mean it wasn’t insane and seemingly absurd. He couldn’t help but see it that way no matter what, but still...looking across the table at Levi, Erwin was not afraid to admit that he thought it was true — or at least almost, because he had a few more questions that he wanted to ask Levi before he could fully decide. 

“If you're from that far in the past, why do you talk like...us?” Erwin asked first, referencing Levi's largely modern and slightly strange way of speaking. 

“You mean, why don't I sound all proper and shit?”

“Yes.” 

“I dunno. Probably from listening to people all day. I haven’t sounded like I used to in a long ass time, so I guess it’s like if I’d moved to another country or something. 

_ Alright. _ Erwin thought. That made sense, he supposed, and he felt he could accept it, but there was definitely another thing that he felt couldn’t just be explained away so easily: “And...how old are you? I mean, how are you still alive? You—

“I’m 23, I guess, and it's the curse. The witch thought suffering like this was worse than death, apparently.”

Or, maybe it could.

“So you're going to stay like this forever?”

“Probably. Unless I die in an accident or something, I guess. I haven’t tested it, for obvious reasons.” 

Levi’s response to Erwin’s latest question had been accompanied by a sarcastic roll of his eyes and then a semi-amused snort, one that he had a feeling he would hear again if Levi knew that he was now thinking of fairy tales, and of how the curses he’d read about in  _ those  _ always had a way to be broken. For obvious reasons, the idea seemed incredibly silly at first because he’d always known such things to be fake, but then again, he hadn’t ever thought people could be turned into cats, either.

“Isn't there some way to break it?” He said with that in mind, half expecting Levi to react as if he’d asked him something stupid that he’d long ago already considered.

“Yeah.” Levi answered in a way that let Erwin know he was mostly right, practically scoffing to show just what he thought of  _ that  _ suggestion, too. “Technically. But it's stupid and impossible, so I already know I’m fucked forever.”  

Frowning, Erwin eyed Levi from across the table. Impossible? What could be impossible, in a world where magic apparently actually existed?

“What is it?” He couldn’t help but ask Levi — he was deathly curious about everything he said, and he hoped that his question wasn’t unwelcome — imagining that it probably wasn’t anything like the ones in all the fairy tales revolving around kisses and romance at least because he was quite sure that those had been thrown in there for dramatic effect, but maybe something like a mixture of special plants and some magic words, or the perfect lining up of the stars or—

“I’m supposed to find my...my  _ ‘true love.’ _ Levi said then, the scowl on his face deepening  while his ears flattened down again. 

He averted his eyes too, Erwin noticed, and squirmed in discomfort a bit as if he was embarrassed to even admit that for whatever reason, but Erwin didn’t put a lot of thought into that because he found himself taken aback by Levi’s answer. 

“What? Really?”

“Yeah. I told you it was stupid.”

“So...you don’t think you’ll find it, or…? I mean, have you tried? You don’t think I—

“What? Don’t fucking flatter yourself.” Levi blurted, interrupting Erwin who had been about to say ‘you don’t think I could help you?’ instead of whatever  _ Levi  _ thought he’d been about to say, to twist his features into something that was almost angry, something that lost the overall effect it was probably supposed to have when Erwin saw a pink blush blooming across his cheeks as well. “I came here because it was better than sitting out in the rain all night, and because you fed me and shit all week. Just because I thought you were nicer than the average bastard human doesn’t mean I thought you were my ‘soulmate,’ or whatever. I don’t have one. If I did, I’m pretty sure I would have found him by now, okay?”

“Okay.” Erwin repeated after Levi was finished, finding that he had to bite back a smile at his sudden outburst.

His tail was lashing quite violently behind him, Erwin saw, and he was staring at the kitchen floor as if it had offended him greatly. If he’d been in his cat form he’d surely be growling at him too, Erwin thought, but just like he had then, he found it hard to be intimidated — especially when it was obvious that he was embarrassed, and when it was over an assumption that wasn’t even correct.

“That wasn’t what I was going to say.” Erwin told him, unable to stop himself from letting out a low chuckle at Levi’s flustered state. Why was he so upset about it, though? Erwin didn’t think he had any reason to be considering the position was in, as he was sure that if their circumstances were reversed, Erwin would be quite desperate to do whatever he could to end his suffering and become human again, for  _ good _ , regardless of any humiliation that he might experience. “But you’ve been stuck like that for a long time. I’m sorry for your plight. I wouldn’t blame you if you came here for that, just to see.”

The ice cold glare that Levi fixed on him probably could have frozen anything. A sane man might have backed away, Erwin thought, but instead he just felt his heart flutter, the sensation a product of amusement, warmth, and the fact that he had already come to the conclusion that Levi wasn’t going to hurt him. Why would he, when he’d come to his house like he’d said to get out of the rain? When he’d asked for the tea too, which was obviously something Levi wanted while he had the chance, and that must have been very important to him if he chose it out of everything  _ else  _ he could have asked for while being human?

He wouldn’t, Erwin thought, but he didn’t blame Levi for that either, like he’d said. In fact, he hadn’t meant to tease him like that and felt a little bad about it, but before he could say anything Levi seemed to relax again instantly, going from tense and visibly irritated to calm and composed in the blink of an eye. Lifting his teacup with the tips of his fingers, he brought it to his mouth delicately and swallowed the rest of it, licking his lips and more than obviously studying Erwin from across the table. 

“Huh.” He said, in the same manner someone might while commenting on something that he was vaguely interested in rather than anything important. “Does that mean you believe me, then?”

Once again, Erwin pondered that question, and once again, he found himself leaning towards ‘yes.’ In fact, he seemed to have accepted that Levi was what he’d said without even really thinking about it that much, but for him, it wasn’t difficult when he was sitting right there in front of his face. He’d never been a closed-minded person, he thought, and regardless of that, he’d experienced enough strange things in this town to fully believe that nothing was of the ordinary. However, there was still one last thing that he was wondering about, one more oddity that he’d noticed over the past few weeks that Levi still hadn’t answered with his appearance and the information that he’d already given him.

“Yes. It’s not like I have much of a choice....but I have to ask, what about all of the cats?”

“The cats have always been here. The witches used them as familiars, and they just multiplied. I kind of take care of them, I guess, so they don’t die like most strays. Also...uh, in the beginning I let myself be seen too many times every Halloween, so the regular townspeople started up some stupid story about a man who could turn into a cat. It got passed down, and now everyone thinks all the homeless cats are people too.”

“Ah.” Erwin just said, his eyes going unfocused for a moment so that he could digest  _ that  _ bizarre piece of information. 

Like everything that Levi had told him, it was loaded with implications and unsaid facts that he would have liked to explore, but he supposed now wasn’t the time, and he was too busy thinking that it  _ at least _ explained the weird answer he’d gotten from animal control about the cats being ‘citizens like everyone else, too’ when he’d called to ask about them.

“Anyway.” Levi uttered then, his tone — laced with finality, for some reason — catching Erwin’s attention and tearing him away from his thoughts, causing him to look back up at Levi all over again and draw his brows down as he moved to stand up. “Thanks for the tea and clothes, or whatever.”

_ What? _ Erwin thought. Was he _ leaving?  _

Standing up too, he opened his mouth as if to say something, as if to stop Levi, finding himself pausing in the next second, though, when Levi looked at him, because he’d moved before he’d even thought about what he was doing, and his mind had stopped him so that he could take a second to make sure it was  _ really  _ what he wanted to do. Thankfully, it only took him another moment to decide that it was. 

“Wait.” He said then, watching as Levi raised an eyebrow and reached for his pants. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going. What do you think I’m doing?” Was Levi’s answer, a question in and of itself that had Erwin shaking his head. 

“Why? What are you going to do?”

“I dunno. I’ll probably go break into places and steal. That’s what I usually do…not because I fucking want to, you know, but—

“I understand.” Erwin interrupted, because he did. Levi never had anywhere to go, like he said, and he couldn’t exactly waltz into places with cat ears and a tail. Even if he wanted a hat he would have to acquire one, Erwin thought, but this time...well, did he actually really think that he needed to subject himself to that? “But...ah, you can just stay here. If you’d like, I mean.”

At that, Levi paused in what he’d been doing — gathering the rest of his clothing — and adopted an expression that was so surprised Erwin ended up raising his eyebrows. The look on Levi’s face, he thought, was far stronger than anything else he’d let show since he’d walked into his home with the exception of irritation, but perhaps predictably enough, it only lasted a split second before his face melted back into something blank all over again.

“What? Seriously?” He mumbled too, biting his lip and focusing his gaze down onto where his boots were lying on the floor. 

“Yes, I don’t mind.”

“I wasn’t trying to ask that, or anything, by coming here.”

“I know. It’s okay, even if you did.”

“I didn’t. I’m not stupid; I know people don’t like random strangers sitting in their home, especially when it's some freak like me.”

“Levi.” Erwin said at that, hoping that his voice sounded stern enough to get him to stop talking. Frowning at the things he’d said about himself, too, Erwin felt even more sympathy for him at what he must have gone through to actually believe in them. Perhaps, he thought, if he didn’t remember the fondness he’d felt for the cat who had become his lunch companion over the past week he might feel differently and not want Levi in his home, but he  _ did  _ recall all of it, and even though it was difficult to reconcile the two of them as the same thing, Erwin knew he’d wanted to get the cat off the street, and he wasn’t about to throw him right back onto it now. “I don’t think you’re a freak. You’re just in an unfortunate situation, and I...well, you don’t have to go. You only have one day to be a human, and I’m not going to make you spend it out in the rain like an animal.”

At that, Levi’s eyes went wide all over again and he glanced back up at Erwin, his gaze searching, Erwin thought, as if he was trying to make sure he was serious. Apparently, a few seconds was all it took for him to realize it, though, because eventually he relaxed, dropping the boot he’d picked up back down onto the floor as he gave in to what he surely had already wanted. 

“Okay.” He said too, sitting down hard onto his chair and swallowing. “Thanks. And...uh, thanks for giving me food and stuff before too.”

“Where? On the bench?” Erwin replied, smiling a bit despite himself at Levi’s demeanor — suddenly seeming a bit shy whereas it had been the complete opposite when he’d first shown up there. 

“Yeah.” Levi snorted, apparently unable to keep from licking his lips — his chops, Erwin thought in amusement — at the thought of the food. 

It made Erwin wonder if he’d had anything to eat since then, and if what he ate as a cat even counted once he was turned into a human again. Probably not, he thought, because a person needed far more energy than a small animal did, and it was that which made him feel guilty for not having already offered Levi anything other than tea. 

“Do you want something to eat?” He asked then, watching as Levi’s eyes latched onto him again so fast that it was almost funny. “I can make you a sandwich, if you want. With turkey and cheese.”

“Okay.” Levi said, confirming what Erwin had been betting on with his suggestion: that Levi liked the same foods as a human as he did as a cat. 

Still, despite knowing that though, Erwin couldn’t help but wonder if he’d rather have something else, if there was another thing — or more — that he’d like to eat instead of the same foods he’d been having all week. If he did, Erwin thought, he hoped that he would have it in his admittedly bachelor’s kitchen of cereal, frozen dinners, and boxes of leftover takeout, but luckily for him, it seemed that the thing Levi had  _ really  _ been craving was not too out of the ordinary. 

“Is there anything else you’d like, other than that?” Erwin asked him before he admitted it, pausing from where he’d started to rummage around in his fridge for the ingredients he needed to make him a sandwich. “Don’t be afraid to ask. I know you only have one day to eat things like this.”

Watching Levi carefully, Erwin felt pleased when, after a moment where he seemed to be thinking, Levi didn’t hesitate to take him up on his request. “Okay. Do you have any, uh....pizza?”

“Pizza?” Erwin stated, raising an eyebrow but already moving to go for his freezer.

“Yeah. That’s what it’s called, right?”

“Yes. I have one, but it’s frozen. Is that alright?”

“Yeah.” Levi said, nodding and giving Erwin the impression that he wouldn’t know one way or the other.

Remembering, of course, that he was from pre-modern times, Erwin wondered if he had ever even tried it in the first place.

“Have you had pizza before?” He asked curiously, moving about his kitchen to turn on the oven and find a pizza pan. 

“Once, as a cat. I tasted a piece some kid dropped on the ground. It was good, but it gave me the shits.”

At that, Erwin couldn’t help but laugh out loud, as although he believed Levi, of course, the thought of what he’d said was a bit absurd. Fortunately, Levi must have been joking too, because this time he just snorted instead of taking offense at Erwin’s amusement. 

“How do you know it won’t give you the shits now?” Erwin asked, looking over his shoulder at where Levi still sat in front of his table. 

“I don’t. Guess we’ll find out.” Levi replied, his tone completely deadpan — which just had the effect of making Erwin laugh again. “But I see lots of people eating it all the time. It smells good.”

“It does. Pizza is delicious.” Erwin agreed, finishing up with his task of getting the pizza into the oven so that he could see if there was anything else Levi wanted to go with it, too.

In the end, he ate over half the pizza, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and an entire can of cooked green beans which he said were too salty, and finished up his meal with a beer and a promise from Erwin that he would get the ingredients to make him a steak and an apple pie tomorrow. After that, he requested another cup of tea and asked if Erwin had any books to read, amazingly still wide awake while Erwin had started to feel a bit bleary-eyed. It was nearing 2 A.M. by then, he thought, and he was used to going to bed around 10 and getting up at 6:30. 

Needless to say, he’d already decided he wasn’t going to go to work the next day — how could he? — but that didn’t mean he was used to staying up late, either, and he found himself wondering whether Levi’s energy was because cats were normally nocturnal creatures or if he was just on some kind of strange schedule. It was interesting to think about, Erwin thought, because he couldn’t stop wondering how 364 days as a cat affected how Levi was as a human, but Erwin was too tired and too sure that it would be rude to ask to do so, deciding after he showed Levi where his books were that he should probably make himself a full pot of coffee. 

After all, his guest showed no sign that he might be slowing down anytime soon, and Erwin wasn’t sure whether or not he should leave him alone — not because he found Levi untrustworthy, but because he wanted to be awake if he needed anything since he was...well, largely unfamiliar with how to handle aspects of the modern world. It wasn’t that he didn’t know what anything was, Erwin had discerned, because he had seen all kinds of objects during his time spent as a cat. In fact, he’d watched the entire world change, Erwin thought, which again made him feel some sympathy for Levi because of how alone he must have felt sometimes, but he had no idea how things worked, which became more than apparent when he told Erwin he had to use the bathroom. 

That was before the books but after the pizza, and Erwin had been forced to swallow a hint of embarrassment of his own while showing Levi how to use the toilet, wondering at the same time why Levi wasn’t flustered when he had been about such silly things earlier, and beating a hasty retreat when Levi’s tail brushed his arm as he abruptly leaned over a bit to pull down his shorts.

Apparently, he had no qualms about pissing right there in front of him, Erwin thought, and he wondered what about the curse had done away with his sense of modesty, as he was quite sure that they had at least had  _ that  _ in the early parts of the 18th century. 

Whatever it was, he had to admit that he found it interesting how Levi’s existence as two different species seemed to merge into one, remembering the human-like behaviors he’d exhibited as a cat even as he watched Levi do things that a feline would while he was a human — things like rubbing a hand over his ear when he thought Erwin wasn’t looking, or leaning closer to an object as if he was going to sniff it before he caught himself, and standing up onto his tiptoes when he went to search Erwin’s bookcase, placing his fingers along the edge of one shelf and peeking over it in a direct imitation of what he had done every time he’d been about to jump up beside Erwin on the bench across from the alley.

Before worrying that Levi was about to launch himself up onto his bookcase, though, Erwin watched him grab a novel and step away instead to open it, his attention thankfully remaining focused on what was inside because Erwin found that he was unable to stop staring. He knew he shouldn’t, he thought, because he didn’t want to make Levi feel like a ‘freak’ as he’d called himself earlier, but it was just...well, Levi in human form was proving to be just as endearing and cute as he had been as a cat — something Erwin suspected Levi would not actually appreciate, as it seemed condescending to think of him like that when he was actually a man, and when he had already experienced multiple lifetimes of humans treating him like an animal. 

Still, though, he couldn’t help it, and anyway, it wasn’t just that. There was more to his interest, Erwin knew, but he didn’t allow himself to admit it until about an hour later when Levi asked if Erwin had a bathtub. The question came after his attention had turned from the book he’d picked out to the television, his eyes becoming so riveted on it once Erwin had turned it on for him that he almost looked like a child. He’d watched for a while, sitting closely beside Erwin on the couch — so closely, in fact, that their arms were touching, and Erwin wondered if the human in him even realized he was doing it — and asking him questions whenever something popped up on the screen that he didn’t understand. 

Like that, he gradually relaxed more and more and apparently grew so comfortable that he forgot where he was, and had Erwin not been forcing himself to sit up straight so that he wouldn’t fall asleep, he might have missed the way Levi suddenly lifted the back of his hand to his mouth while parting his lips. Before he could lick it — which  _ was  _ what he’d been about to do, Erwin realized a second later, once Levi asked him his next question — he apparently caught himself, stopping and going still on the couch for a moment before he hastily crossed his arms. Then, he looked to the side to see if Erwin, who was not about to do anything that let Levi know he’d seen, had noticed, and bit his lip for another few seconds before he spoke up and asked him about the bathtub.

“Yes.” Erwin replied right away, nursing the remnants of the third cup of coffee he’d had this past hour. He was about done with it and ready for a fourth, he thought idly, as so far, all the caffeine had done was give him heartburn. “It’s upstairs. Do you want to take a bath?”

“Uh...yeah. That’d be nice. It sucks when your only options for one are dirty puddles and ponds.” Levi answered, a statement to which Erwin wholeheartedly had to agree to. 

It  _ would  _ suck to not be able to take a proper bath, he thought, but he had a feeling that Levi wanted one just for the pleasure of it as much as he did to get clean. Just like everything else, Erwin didn’t blame him for that, either, and so he happily showed Levi upstairs to his bathroom — the one attached to his actual bedroom, because the spare didn’t have a full-sized tub — and began running the water for him before he gathered a towel, feeling a muted sense of amusement again while Levi curiously looked things over on the counter.

“What the hell is this?” He mumbled after Erwin had sat himself down on the edge of the tub, turning away from where he’d been standing at the seat with Erwin’s electric razor in his hand. 

“It’s a razor.” Erwin told him. “I shave with it.”

“A razor? What the f—

Levi’s confused question was cut off when, after fumbling with the device a bit, he hit the ‘on’ button and the razor suddenly started buzzing, the sound causing his lips to part in surprise as he froze. Staring at it, Erwin watched as the look in his eye went from disbelief to perplexed to understanding, finding that he was unable to help from making the one comment he knew that he absolutely shouldn’t: “Careful. Curiosity killed the cat, you know.”

Although his tone was obviously teasing, Erwin still expected to be on the receiving end of a withering glare less than a second after he’d finished speaking. Surprisingly, though, despite the fact that he wasn’t wrong, Levi’s scowl was accompanied by a pink blush, one that appeared only after he’d turned the razor off, set it down, and looked away. Again, Erwin regretted embarrassing him like he had before — if that was even what it was, a voice in the back of his mind said — but before he could apologize Levi seemed to shrug it off, walking over towards him so that he could look down into the tub. 

Placing a hand on the edge, he leaned over a bit to dip his fingers into the swirling water, a surprisingly loud,  _ pleased  _ sounding hum suddenly coming from somewhere in his chest when he felt the temperature — a noise that Erwin might have taken for a purr if he hadn’t actually known better. Humans weren’t capable of doing that, Erwin told himself, but then again, they weren’t supposed to have cat ears and tails either, so for all he knew Levi  _ had  _ just been purring. Why did it matter, though? Why did the thought make Erwin’s face feel warm, when because of everything else, he knew he shouldn’t?

He didn’t know, but either way he was quite sure that Levi could deal with the rest of this on his own. Standing up, Erwin hastily pointed down at the ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ handles in the corner of his bathtub, instructing him on how to turn the water off before he directed his attention to the button that would turn on the bubbles, and effectively turn the entire thing into a small jacuzzi. Predictably, Levi seemed to like that very, very much, enough so that he moved to pull his shirt over his head right away, so quickly that Erwin took that moment as his queue to leave the room. 

Swallowing, he stepped towards the door and didn’t look back, only managing to get halfway there before he found himself frozen again when Levi suddenly spoke.

“Hey, wait.” He said, prompting Erwin to stop and frown at the floor. Did Levi need something else? He had gotten him out a bar of soap, hadn’t he? He thought so, but either way, he was going to make sure that Levi was decent before he looked over at him — or at least, that's what he'd planned before Levi opened his mouth and continued. “You wanna join me in here?”

With his eyes going wide at  _ that _ , Erwin was too surprised  _ not  _ to turn back around, subconsciously feeling, apparently, that the only way to be sure that he’d heard Levi right and to check whether he was serious about what he said was to actually see his face. Unfortunately, though, his face was not the first thing that Erwin’s eyes landed on. Instead, it was Levi’s backside, sticking up a bit and completely exposed to him as he stood with one foot inside the tub and the other still on the floor, partially leaned over with his hands resting on the opposite edge while he looked backed at him coyly. 

_ “What?” _ Erwin blurted then, uttering the question like a swear, almost, as his mind escaped from its momentary shock and he forced himself to shut his eyes.  

That was the only way he wouldn’t stare, he knew, because although he’d  _ told _ himself he needed to turn back around, his body apparently had no intentions of actually obeying him. 

“I asked if you wanted to take a bath with me.” Levi replied, repeating himself as if what'd he'd proposed was the most obvious and  _ normal  _ thing in the world to do with a man he’d just met a few hours ago. 

It was for that reason, Erwin thought, that he was somewhat glad he’d managed to keep himself from taking in the sight in front of him for any longer than he already had, because for a second there he found himself wondering if this was another of Levi’s strange, abnormally relaxed behaviors like how he had stripped in the kitchen, one where in  _ his _ mind he was just being polite or something instead of blatantly coming onto him.

“It’s not every Halloween that I get to spend the night with another man, you know.  _ Especially _ one like you.”

Ok, Erwin thought. Apparently not. 

‘Spend the night,’ though? Like, staying over as his guest in his spare bedroom ‘spend the night,’ or-

“Like me?” Erwin asked, his curiosity causing him to speak up before he could even finish his thought even though he  _ knew  _ he shouldn’t. 

Unfortunately, though, no matter how much he told himself that, it seemed that he just couldn’t help it, as despite the fact that he  _ knew  _ his self-control wasn’t anything to bat an eyelash at, the image of Levi’s naked body that had been seared into his brain was apparently unraveling all of it quickly. Swallowing, he tightened his brows down in the second after he spoke and then frowned, his stern expression ending up being a representation of the one last effort he had inside of him to keep his damned eyes closed. 

Unable to stop himself from opening them — Levi wasn’t exactly trying to hide from his gaze anyway, he thought, seeing as how he’d just learned he was exposing himself on purpose — the first thing he saw, of course, was Levi, still in the exact same position that he’d been in before with his head turned over his shoulder in Erwin’s direction. Predictably enough, the tempting sight was enough for him to just…give up. Letting his eyes rove over Levi, Erwin took in his shoulders, his back, his strong looking thighs and his ass, finding that his gaze ended up lingering over _that_ particular feature much, much longer than anything else. 

“Yeah.” Levi said then, answering his question from a few moments ago. Lazily, his tail waved behind him and caused Erwin’s vision to catch where it grew out of the small of his back, a different sight, of course, but one that didn’t dissuade him from looking in the least. “Handsome. Big. Strapping.”

“Levi, I—

“What’s wrong? You don’t like men, or something? You seemed like the type that did, and you’re staring at my ass.”

“No.” Erwin said, practically exhaling his response and almost laughing because of how  _ absurd  _ that question seemed right then. “I mean yes, I  _ do  _ like men _. _ But that’s not it.”

It was true; it wasn’t. In fact, it was far, far from the reason that he was hesitating, because Levi was just as tempting in that moment to him as a glass of water might be to someone trapped in the desert. He was attractive, Erwin thought....no, beautiful,  _ gorgeous _ , and he had noticed almost as soon as he’d gotten his bearings after Levi had arrived and walked into his house. And how could he not? His silky, dark hair and creamy skin, the trim waist Erwin had seen when he’d taken off his shirt in the kitchen and his round, perky, taut little ass — the one that looked like it would fit perfectly in Erwin’s hands — were all things that he had noticed, and that he had been  _ trying _ not to think about at all because it wasn’t appropriate. 

Levi was his guest, he thought, and more than that he was a man affected by a magical curse that turned him into a cat. He only had one day out of the year to be a human, and Erwin had not even spared more than a passing thought to the idea that he’d want to spend it like  _ this  _ and with  _ him _ . He supposed, again, that he couldn’t blame Levi for wanting to find company and experience such things while he could, though, but the last thing Erwin wanted to do was take advantage of him, because in the end, Erwin found Levi just as charming and likable as he did psychically appealing, too. 

No, it didn't matter that he'd only known him just a few hours and that he was from the 18th century; Erwin was sure of what he felt, and he knew if he'd met Levi in any other type of circumstance he probably would have ended up asking him out — or at least thought about it, which was something that he didn’t have the option of there. That being said, he knew that no one else in that room understood that more than Levi himself, and that...well, surely he wouldn’t be asking anything like this if he didn’t actually want it, right?

“Then what is it, huh? Come on, Erwin.” Levi said, pressing on after Erwin had gone silent to think.

He'd glanced away while he done so, of course, because he didn't want to openly ogle Levi if he didn't end up getting into the tub, but at his prodding, he ended up looking up again anyway. Then, he saw that Levi was frowning and he had the sudden concern that he was about to think that it was just  _ him _ that Erwin wasn’t responding to, which was a thought that made his eyes widen as he shook his head and held his hands up in near alarm.

“It’s not you.” He made sure to say, idly musing in the back of his mind that he probably deserved an award for managing to not think with his cock right now. He was half hard, naturally, just from the sight of Levi like that, and he felt a warmth growing in his belly that he couldn’t ignore. His face, he knew, was hot too, his blood feeling so much like fire in his veins that he suddenly found himself wanting to open a window, rip his clothes off, or both, but before he could do anything, he somehow summoned the strength to take a deep breath and explain to Levi just exactly why it was that he was hesitating. “I just...I don't want to take advantage of you. You’re—

“Too willing because I’ll be a cat again in less than a day? Give me a break. Just get in the bath, you idiot.”

Levi’s response — complete with a scoff — was enough to cause Erwin’s mouth to fall open, although what he’d said had not been entirely unexpected. Even so, he waited another few seconds for his heart to stop pounding uncontrollably in his chest before he did anything, managing to remain still long enough for Levi to climb the rest of the way into the bath, sit down, and raise his eyebrows at him before he finally took a step forward. Thoroughly defeated, he hurriedly pulled his shirt over his head as he moved, and once he got to the tub, he wasted no time in leaning over to push his sweatpants down too so that he could step out of them, unable to keep from peeking up at the same time to get a glimpse of Levi, whose eyes had  _ noticeably _ lowered to stare right at his groin.

Whether he liked what he saw or not, Erwin wasn’t sure, but he couldn’t deny the thrill that he felt from having Levi’s eyes on him. He wasn’t shy about taking him in either, that was for sure, but by the time he too had climbed into the tub and eased himself into the water across from Levi, his face and chest had gone completely red, and Erwin was quite sure that it only  _ partially  _ had to do with the steamy heat. Shifting in an effort to get comfortable — something which was easier said than done, as the both of them sitting inside the tub was a tight fit because Erwin was...well, so  _ big _ , as Levi had put it — he ended up with his knees bent and sticking out of the water, half submerged across from Levi who had not torn his gaze away from him the entire time. 

In turn, Erwin stared back excitedly and felt his heart pound in his chest because of all the places where they were now touching, finding that the effect Levi had on him only increased when he moved after a few seconds so that he could slide deeper into the bath. 

“See, Erwin?” He asked then, sinking down until only his head was visible. “This isn't so bad.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Erwin.” He said then too, uttering Erwin’s name in what seemed to be half a gasp and a forceful growl — the sound of it proving to be the only thing that could bring Erwin out from the near trance he’d apparently lost himself in. It was that, he thought, which made him realize that Levi had been trying to get his attention, and suddenly feeling dismayingly concerned that he’d overstepped or something like that, he sat back up, removing his arms from where he’d been holding Levi only to find out that what he wanted was actually the opposite. “Don’t fucking tease me.”
> 
> “What?” Erwin responded, drawing his brows in tightly while he looked down to meet Levi’s gaze.
> 
> “Touch me.” Levi ordered him, even as Erwin slipped his arms back around his waist. He did so slower this time, despite having realized what Levi meant about teasing him, albeit with every intention of doing what he’d asked once he’d kissed his neck again — at least until Levi continued, anyway, and said something that made his eyebrows raise in both curiosity and amusement. “Come on. Your hands felt good last time.”

Despite the fact that Erwin was essentially still  _ reeling _ from all of this, he couldn't help but laugh. 

“I didn't think it would be  _ bad _ .” He said too, smiling in amusement at the mere thought.

Across from him, Levi snorted in response and eyed his face, appearing to become thoughtful for a moment as his gaze slowly lowered to take in his chest. A second after that, Erwin saw, it dropped even further and suddenly Levi had sunk all the way down into the water, disappearing beneath the surface while he stared at the spot where he’d just been sitting in a mixture of mild surprise, puzzlement, and fascination, barely even having the time to wonder what Levi was doing before he had appeared again. 

He pushed himself back up with a small splash and then reached up to slick his long hair back over his skull — prior to this, it had been held in a small ponytail at the base of his neck with the exception of a few loose strands that wouldn’t reach — in a way that had Erwin’s eyes going lidded because...well, because he was now wet and dripping, and he’d given Erwin an almost dazzlingly clear view of his entire face by pushing all of the stray pieces out of the way.

“Still, I didn’t think I’d have to ask twice once I took my pants off and bent over.” Levi murmured while Erwin stared, finding himself unable to help it, caught off guard all over again by how beautiful and striking Levi was to him, so much so that he almost missed Levi biting his lip for a moment before he reached for the bar of soap that Erwin had gotten out for him earlier. 

He smelled it, Erwin saw, and seemed to like the scent, shifting again without any further hesitation before he dipped it into the water so that he could start washing himself off. Clearly comfortable and unbothered in the least by Erwin’s presence — he’d said that he wouldn’t be, obviously, but hearing it and seeing it were two different things for Erwin — Levi’s visible nonchalance helped him to relax some, to settle his still swirling thoughts about how unexpected this had all been so that he could slide deeper into the steaming water himself and enjoy how it seemed to loosen his muscles. 

Torn between just sitting there like that while he watched Levi clean himself — as methodically as he had when he’d been a cat, Erwin thought — and moving to do the same thing, Erwin came to the conclusion that he should probably just follow Levi’s lead, as he still wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted from him out of all of this except for a shared bath. For all he knew, he thought, Levi would be satisfied by just having something to look at and would end whatever game he had started to play with him after they got out, and he was all too aware that assuming things or overstepping his bounds might end up making him uncomfortable. 

For obvious reasons, that was the last thing that Erwin wanted to do there regardless of what ended up happening between them, because he didn’t have the heart to do anything to cause Levi  _ not  _ to enjoy himself, and he didn’t want to ruin the excitement, either, because it  _ was  _ exciting, after all, as no matter how hard he tried — even though he wasn’t sure if he should — he couldn’t stop himself from entertaining the possibility that he might end up with the gorgeous, naked creature sitting across from him in his arms later that night. 

The thought of kissing Levi, of running his fingers over his skin, was very real to him now that he was a mere few feet away and so at ease with how he was wet and exposed to his eyes, but Erwin had not forgotten how he’d learned to tread lightly before, how he’d had to earn the black cat’s trust _first_ before he had finally been able to pet him. 

Still, though, despite all of that, Erwin was apparently unable to not say  _ something _ .

“Well…” He murmured, speaking carefully while he gave Levi a small smile. Finally reaching for his own bar of soap liked he’d decided to do a few moments ago, he splashed some water on his chest and answered Levi’s comment from before. “I’m here now.”

“Yeah.” Levi replied, only scoffing at first as if he’d initially taken Erwin’s comment to just be something amusing. 

Then, after that, though, he paused and drew his brows down to apparently think, his eyes noticeably flickering downward across Erwin’s chest, over one arm, and onto his hands, both of which were still holding the soap and close to using it to lather up his skin. Before he got a chance to actually do so, however, Levi was biting his lip and meeting his gaze again, the barest hints of a mischievous expression appearing on his face, Erwin thought, before he spoke. 

“Yeah, you’re here.” He said, shifting one of his legs underneath the water. His toes brushed across Erwin’s inner thigh teasingly and then slipped even further than that, the tips of them stopping just shy of brushing up against Erwin’s balls before reached down in response to gently grab his ankle. He cradled his foot like that with both hands and then raised an eyebrow, feeling his heart skip a beat in excitement and wondering whether or not he was about to find out the answer to the question of what Levi wanted from him. “You wanna make yourself useful?”

“Useful?” Erwin asked, unable to hold back a small smile. 

“Yeah. Sit up.” 

Wriggling his foot from Erwin’s grasp, he pushed it up against Erwin’s stomach a bit firmly as if to nudge him, an action which was barely even necessary because Erwin had moved to do what he’d said as soon as he’d said it. He pushed himself back up from where he’d sank down into the water before, and then watched with interest as Levi scooted forward, twisted around, and made himself comfortable right between Erwin’s spread thighs — after he’d taken the time to shove his bar of soap in Erwin’s already full hands first, though, which made the implications of what he wanted  _ more _ than clear to him even if he hadn’t spoken: Levi, determinedly intent on being clean no matter what, apparently, wanted Erwin to ‘make himself useful’ by soaping up his back. 

Quite sure that he could handle that, Erwin smiled to himself and set his own bar of soap aside, wasting no time whatsoever in getting to work. Why would he wait, he thought, when doing what Levi wanted meant that he would be able to touch him? With his heart pounding in his chest, it was hard for Erwin to think about anything else except for that, except for how Levi felt sitting between his legs with his lower back brushing up against his cock, but somehow he managed to just concentrate on washing him, splashing some water onto his skin like he’d done to himself before he ran the bar of soap over his shoulders. 

Still, while he did so, he moved slowly and carefully — he didn’t want to miss a spot, after all — and paid close attention to how Levi was reacting to what he was doing. He closed his eyes after a few moments, Erwin saw, and his breathing gradually grew steady and even, his fingers relaxing from where he’d previously been gripping the edges of the tub rather tightly, too. Between them, his tail hung languorously over the side of it as well, the tip twitching every so often in the corner of Erwin’s eye.

That was the only part of him that moved, he thought, and in fact, he looked so comfortable and content that had he been in cat form, Erwin imagined that he would have been purring. Delighted at how pleased Levi seemed to be at his touch so far, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was capable of doing that as a human, too, if he were to become even more at ease and more loose than he already happened to be. Considering the  _ other _ cat features he had, Erwin supposed that it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch, and there had been that sound he’d made earlier when he’d stuck his toes into the warm water that had sounded like one. 

Although Erwin had been distracted at the time, he couldn’t deny that hearing it had peaked his interest somewhat, and while sitting there, he found the thought to be no less exciting than it had been before, so much so that…well, if Levi  _ was _ capable of purring somewhere in his chest if he felt good enough, then Erwin knew that he really, really,  _ really _ wanted to be the one to  _ make  _ him. 

With that thought in mind, he carefully and quietly set the soap aside so that he could place his palms over Levi’s shoulders instead, rubbing gently at his lathered up, slick skin and gradually turning his washing of Levi into something of a massage. He did so by squeezing at his muscles, by kneading him with his thumbs, only increasing the pressure when it became apparent that he wasn’t going to protest. Indeed, instead of that he seemed to go even more limp than he already was, exhaling a pleasurable sounding sigh at one point and lolling his head to the side when Erwin’s fingers trailed closer to his neck as if he was giving him more access. 

Not one to ignore something like that, obviously, Erwin swallowed and caressed him there and stared at where droplets of water accumulated on Levi’s skin, each one of them practically  _ begging _ for his mouth to press down onto so that he could lick them all off. Erwin couldn’t help but think things like that by then, of course, because he’d become full of lust from sitting there all that time just touching Levi, from running his hands all over his wet back and shoulders while he sat firmly in between his bare thighs. 

His belly was heavy and hot with it, he thought, and his eyes were no doubt clouded — although not enough to not notice how Levi’s breath has quickened somewhat just like his, how his fingers had gone back to gripping the edge of the tub as if he was struggling to keep himself still. He looked on edge, in fact, but not in a bad way, and although Erwin had been adamant about following Levi’s lead when they’d started this, he was too sure about what his reaction would be to anything  _ else _ to continue to successfully hold himself back. 

“Levi.” He uttered then, unsurprised when his voice came out low and husky from arousal. Pausing, he slid his palm over to squeeze the place on Levi’s back where his neck curved to meet his shoulder, eyeing him while he did so and feeling positively inflamed when Levi suddenly made a small noise in his throat. It was almost a moan, he thought, almost a sound of pure pleasure, and it was all he could do to bite back a groan of his own, instead focusing on parting his lips so that he could move to place the lightest, most careful and gentlest of kisses on the side of Levi’s neck. “Does that feel good?”

“Yeah.” Levi exhaled, reaching up behind him without hesitation to grab a fistful of Erwin’s hair — a movement which would have made his answer  _ more  _ than clear even if he had not even spoken at all.

He wound his fingers between the strands, in fact, and then shifted a bit to let his head fall back against his shoulder carelessly, and considering that his mouth had just gone dry at how Levi had just exposed more of his pretty neck to him, Erwin would have been insane not to take Levi’s movements for what they were: an invitation for him to keep going. Pressing his lips to Levi’s skin again right away, he kissed him more insistently there, mouthing higher up along his throat while nuzzling the bottom of his wet scalp with his nose, flicking his tongue out, too, so that he could lap up the water and taste him just as he had imagined himself doing before. 

Predictably enough, it was all heady and intoxicating — especially Levi’s scent, fresh and clean and tinged with the soap, which invaded his nostrils right away and almost made him feel dizzy — and he closed his eyes, unable to stop himself from becoming lost in it all right away. All but giving up on the massage, his hands, too, became distracted after he wound his arms around Levi’s middle to pull him closer, planting one big palm on his stomach while the other moved lower so that his fingers could tease at a hip bone. 

Tickling him there, almost, he barely even realized he was doing it until he felt Levi arch against him suddenly and tug at his hair, the sensation, a bit rough, causing him to practically see stars, a jolt of arousal going through him so suddenly too that this time, he couldn’t hold in the groan that sounded out in his chest. It made him squeeze Levi’s middle with his arms, suck lightly at his neck and even shift his hips a bit so that his cock was pressed more firmly up against Levi’s back, and then lower his fingers a bit more, brushing them across the top of Levi’s thigh as he squirmed a bit in his embrace. 

_ “Erwin.” _ He said then too, uttering Erwin’s name in what seemed to be half a gasp and a forceful growl — the sound of it proving to be the only thing that could bring Erwin out from the near trance he’d apparently lost himself in. It was that, he thought, which made him realize that Levi had been trying to get his attention, and suddenly feeling dismayingly concerned that he’d overstepped or something like that, he sat back up, removing his arms from where he’d been holding Levi only to find out that what he wanted was actually the opposite. “Don’t fucking tease me.”

“What?” Erwin responded, drawing his brows in tightly while he looked down to meet Levi’s gaze. 

His head was still tilted to the side, he saw, but he’d turned it so that he could stare up at him with eyes that were glazed with lust — eyes that no doubt matched Erwin’s own, and which made his alarm disappear almost as quickly as it had come.

“Touch me.” Levi ordered him, even as Erwin slipped his arms back around his waist. He did so slower this time, despite having realized what Levi meant about teasing him, albeit with every intention of doing what he’d asked once he’d kissed his neck again — at least until Levi continued, anyway, and said something that made his eyebrows raise in both curiosity and amusement. “Come on. Your hands felt good last time.”

Stopping at that with his palms on Levi’s hips and his mouth a mere inch away from his neck, Erwin only had to think for a single second to realize what Levi meant by ‘last time’: he’d rubbed him down, quite literally, in fact, when he’d been a cat earlier that day, walking all over his legs and leaning into his touch for attention. Although it hadn’t been with the same intentions,  _ obviously _ , and he was quite sure that Levi knew that and hadn’t felt like  _ this  _ at the time, it was still entertaining to him, for some reason, to think that Levi had apparently enjoyed it so much that he brought it up in comparison even now.

“Last time?” Erwin murmured, unable to stop from teasing him — in more ways than one, as his lips barely brushed over Levi’s neck as he spoke — even though Levi had just  _ commanded  _ him not to.  

Charmingly enough, Erwin’s question just caused Levi to stiffen and then squirm — a brief, taken aback expression crossing his visible features as if he’d just realized what he’d said and what Erwin was probably thinking.

“I meant….I mean, it wasn’t like that, you fucker.” He started, shifting to shoot a scowl at the wall. “It wasn’t like this then. I—

“I know.” Erwin interrupted then, because although he had decided to be playful with him, he hadn’t meant to make Levi feel self-conscious. 

“That doesn’t mean I didn’t think about that shit, though.” He continued though, biting his lip despite what Erwin had assumed to be embarrassment to give him a coy look over his shoulder. “You touched me everywhere, and it felt good. I figured it would feel even better when I was a human again. Too bad I still don’t know, because you’re moving slower than—

“Sorry.” Erwin murmured then, interrupting Levi suddenly as something came over him, something giddy and joyful and determined, that caused him to abruptly shift in the tub without warning, to draw his legs up, slide down, and push Levi forward with his hips so forcefully that he had to scrabble at the edges of the bath for purchase.

Smiling and even laughing when Levi swore, too, and made a splash, Erwin wrapped his arms around him as if to catch him when his ass slipped on the porcelain — he’d jostled him so much that he might have gone underwater had he not, because, although Erwin was not stupid enough to say this out loud, he apparently had not retained  _ all  _ of his feline reflexes from before — and pulled him tight up against his chest, leaning back in the tub as he did so and holding him in place, making sure to tuck him tightly between both his thighs again, too, and up underneath his chin as quickly as he could before Levi even had any idea of what had happened.

Although Erwin had moved Levi like that because he fully intended on doing what he’d asked and wanted to be in the perfect position to do so, he also had begun to suspect that Levi was all hiss, per se, and no scratch, and found that the urge to tease him was, for some reason, undeniable. He had been....cute, Erwin thought, when he’d been so nearly flustered moments before and caught off guard, and the way he acted reluctantly pleased now was even moreso. It was obvious that he was, of course, because of how he had already relaxed into Erwin’s arms even as his ears twitched and then flattened like he was irritated — they were tickling Erwin’s cheeks because of where his chin rested now — and not made any move to try and get out of his grip whatsoever.  

In addition to that, there was the perfect way that he seemed to fit in his embrace that had Erwin taking the time to marvel at before he could help himself, humming in satisfaction a second later even as Levi already began to squirm impatiently again.

“Where should I touch you, then?” Erwin finally murmured before he could say anything, though, smiling again as he slid a hand up and over Levi’s chest to squeeze at his shoulder. 

He kneaded him there a bit too for a moment, naturally, as if to indicate his willingness to give him a massage again even though he knew that wasn’t what Levi wanted.

“Here?” He still asked, pressing the palm of his other hand against Levi’s belly under the water, humming thoughtfully to himself when he felt Levi’s muscles twitch. He had no other reaction except for the way his breath quickened a bit, and so Erwin let go of his shoulder so that he could brush a thumb over one of his nipples. “Or here?” 

Levi exhaled at that, and shifted back against Erwin — enough so that he rubbed up against Erwin’s very swollen cock and caused him to feel a bit of friction. Considering that he was of the opinion that if he grew any harder than he already was he might die, the feeling rushed to Erwin’s head before he could stop it, and he let out a shuddering breath too before he all but went slack against the back of the tub. His head fell against the edge and his eyes fluttered shut, and he ended up remaining that way while his hands kept working, simply enjoying the feel of Levi’s body beneath his fingers because this position didn’t allow him to see much anyway. 

Teasing at Levi’s nipple some more — it was stiff under his palm, and wet from the water, and slipped so tantalizingly between his fingers when Erwin dragged them over it that it nearly made  _ him  _ groan — he felt Levi arch against his body in response and reach back to grab a handful of his hair all over again, inhaling so sharply when Erwin pinched him that it was nearly a gasp. He seemed to shiver, too, and squirmed in Erwin’s arms and jerked his hips forward as if he hoped that the hand he still held on Levi’s belly would slip lower, clearly becoming more and more worked up by the second. 

It was inflaming to him as well, Erwin thought, and just caused him to let his palms wander all over Levi’s skin more intently, but it was not until he did let his fingers venture lower, brushing them across Levi’s hip bone and inner thigh and right near where he knew his cock would be, that he realized how desperate for this Levi really had become.

“What about here?” He had murmured first, squeezing right where Levi’s leg met his lower body while his other palm remained over his chest. “Or should I go lower? I—

_ “Please.”  _ Levi interrupted then, uttering the word in such a way that it almost sounded like a sob. 

Because of that, Erwin actually found himself pausing, opening his eyes from where they’d still been closed and feeling a bit taken aback from the intensity with which Levi had spoken, how he’d gone from seeming slightly impatient to  _ begging  _ him in the span of barely a minute or two. Was he really  _ that  _ sensitive? Or.... _ oh.  _

Realizing that it had probably been quite a while since Levi had done this — decades, possibly, which was unfathomable — because he’d basically admitted as much, Erwin suddenly felt bad for teasing him, especially after Levi had already asked him to stop. He hadn’t meant to drive him crazy, he thought, because he’d just been enjoying how it felt to have Levi in his arms, and had been under the impression from his reactions that he had like it too. Unfortunately, though, it seemed that in doing so Erwin had actually been acting rather selfish, and had likely just added to the frustration that had built up inside of him for who knew how long, as right then, after all of his waiting, he  _ surely  _ did not want Erwin to go slow.  

No, instead of that he probably wanted him to just get on with it because he hadn’t been satisfied or taken care of in ages — something that was criminal in his mind, really, because he did not think Levi deserved any of this even though he barely knew him — and Erwin had just unwittingly submitted him to what was essentially torture...sweet torture, perhaps, but torture nonetheless. Then again, though, it wasn’t like Levi had said as much. He hadn’t told Erwin any of that specifically, and he still wasn’t saying it now despite the fact that it was now abundantly clear to him that he’d been holding his desperation back. 

Regardless, though, even  _ if  _ there was a part of Erwin that he held somewhere deep down inside that tempted him to keep teasing Levi relentlessly until he could  _ make  _ him admit it, now was not the time, and the other part of him that wanted to give Levi the pleasure and the release that he needed so much was a lot stronger anyway. Because of that, he immediately decided that he wasn’t going to waste anymore time, and shifted his hand underneath the water to grab Levi’s cock. As soon as he wrapped his fingers around it he stroked it gently, and the sound Levi made was evidence enough of his longing even if he hadn’t done anything else. 

It was a noisy, breathy exhale, Erwin thought, almost a sigh that ended in a moan that was then accompanied by him breaking the grip he still held on Erwin’s hair in relief, his entire body seeming to melt in his arms as if Erwin had just released him from some great pain. Considering the fact that it wasn’t pain that caused him to react in such a way, though, but pleasure, Erwin just felt even more spurred on than he already had been, finding himself shifting in the tub, sitting up again and adjusting Levi from where he held him so that his head was all but cradled in the crook of his arm. 

“Is that better?” He murmured to him, while he went back to kissing at Levi’s neck after he pressed his face there, after Levi nodded in response and he whispered some other words in his ear that he  _ hoped  _ were reassuring before he continued to stroke Levi with his palm eagerly. 

Taking the time to thumb at the head of his cock while he did so — but not stopping, no,  _ never  _ stopping after what he’d realized, of course — and to rub, twist, and pinch at his nipples with the fingers of his other hand, Erwin tried to pay as much attention as he could to how Levi responded to each touch and kiss, to the way he inhaled sharply or trembled or tensed up against him when something happened that he liked so that he could do it again, and again and again and again, as obviously, Erwin’s goal was to make him feel as good as he possibly could so that Levi would eventually fall all the way apart in his arms. 

In simpler terms, Erwin thought, his goal was to make Levi come, and predictably enough, perhaps, it did not end up taking that long at all. 

_ “Oh. _ ” Levi was gasping after what only seemed like a minute or two in, in fact, wrapping the fingers of one hand around Erwin’s forearm tightly while also reaching out to grab the edge of the tub for purchase. “Fuck!”

He did so because he’d started lifting his hips up towards Erwin’s hand, of course — reaching for more friction, like he almost desperately feared it would stop if he didn’t — and because otherwise his ass would be slipping down the bottom of the tub, which gave Erwin half a mind to just haul him up out of it and deposit him on his bed so that he could better keep him still. Even if he thought he’d be able to  _ really  _ give Levi something to moan about that way, though, he wasn’t going to because he seemed to be enjoying this a lot too, as he had long ago let his eyes flutter shut and relaxed his head back against Erwin’s shoulder, biting his lip in between breathless sounds while Erwin gradually stroked him faster and giving off the overall impression that he’d nearly completely lost himself to it. 

“ _Erwin.”_ He moaned suddenly though, in a voice that was more of a whimper than anything, and in a way that almost had Erwin echoing the noise himself just from the sound of hearing his name tumble from Levi’s lips like that. “I’m... _ah!”_

“It’s alright. I’ve got you. I’ve got you Levi, you can come.” Erwin couldn’t help but murmur into his ear then, hearing the desperation in Levi’s tone, knowing that he was getting close, and feeling the sudden urge to relieve him with his words almost as much as he did with his hands. 

Continuing to kiss at Levi’s throat, Erwin tightened one arm around his middle and squeezed him there as if to offer proof of what he’d just told him, keeping his other in the exact position that he needed it in to pump Levi’s cock even quicker than he had been before. Naturally, the increased friction and stimulation caused Levi to just gasp louder and clutch at Erwin harder, his entire body seeming to grow more and more tight with tension right up against Erwin’s chest by the second. 

Erwin could feel it, of course, because of how closely he was holding Levi in his arms and between his legs, and even after closing his own eyes to lean his head back again — every time Levi moved, he rubbed up against Erwin’s groin just enough to make him breath heavy too — he knew that it would only be a few more desperate, reaching rolls of Levi’s hips before they stuttered and he’d release in a pleasurable rush. Sure enough, a second later and he froze all of a sudden before letting out a sound that could only be described as a choked off cry, one that ended in another low whimper after he’d collapsed against Erwin while surely spilling white into the water. 

He trembled all over, and Erwin milked him until he was squirming as he buried his face into Levi’s neck again to kiss at his throat, cheek, and the top of his head while Levi gasped for breath, holding him close and even feeling like  _ he  _ needed to come down a bit himself from all of that, as even if he hadn’t been the one getting jerked off he couldn’t deny that it had all been incredibly arousing to witness. The way Levi had responded to his touch, he thought, the way he had  _ moaned his name _ made his blood boil, and after what he’d done without any stimulation whatsoever...well, needless to say he could feel an ache starting to settle in his balls that he longed to relieve.

How, though? Even after everything so far, Erwin was still committed to following Levi’s lead, and the last thing he wanted was for Levi to think that he had to return the favor somehow anyway. He didn’t expect that and didn’t think he’d have any problem taking care of himself if it came to that, and although he knew he could be patient, his own, continuous lust was hard to ignore while Levi still lay naked and wet in his arms. Fortunately, though, it was only a few more moments before Levi proved that he wasn’t there to just take, because suddenly, with no real warning whatsoever, he surprised Erwin once more by practically jolting forward out of his embrace, turning around in the tub before Erwin even fully realized what was happening so that he could firmly seat himself in his lap —  _ really  _ in his lap, Erwin thought with delight, because he was straddling his thighs and now pressed right up against his front. 

He was still panting too, Erwin noticed, and looked half fucked out, so to speak, from his orgasm, but there was such a large amount of excitement and heat in his eyes that Erwin felt his widening a bit, noticing a hint of determination in Levi’s expression too that didn’t go away when he reached up to grasp Levi’s waist to pull him even closer. Instead of that, in fact, it just increased, especially when — after intently holding Erwin’s gaze for all that time — he placed both hands on either side of his jaw and then glanced down at his mouth, dragging his thumb across his bottom lip a bit roughly before finally closing the distance between them to give Erwin a searing, firm kiss that nearly managed to take his breath away. 

It was like he was trying to show him how grateful he was without words for what Erwin had just done for him, he thought, but for obvious reasons, that was all the permission he needed to continue with what they’d started, too, as Levi had pressed their lips together with  _ his  _ already open and willing for Erwin to taste. Because of that, he immediately set to plundering Levi’s mouth, discovering right away that he was even sweeter to his tongue there than he’d been anywhere else so far — something that made his cock positively throb, along with the way that Levi slipped the fingers of one hand into his hair as if to cradle his head while they kissed. 

They felt good there against his scalp, Erwin thought, just like Levi’s hips felt good pressed tightly up against his own under the water, and with the way that Erwin had already been barely keeping all of his desire tampered down before Levi had climbed into his lap...well, he wasn’t exactly slow and careful like he’d been before. No, instead of that his hands wandered excitedly and he ended up grabbing Levi’s ass, coming away with two palms full of the soft, perky flesh that had caught his eye so much earlier. 

Nearly groaning in satisfaction, he squeezed it perhaps a bit harder than he’d intended and held on like that for a moment, thankfully saved from even beginning to feel concerned that Levi didn’t like it by the way that he suddenly nipped at Erwin’s bottom lip in response to the less than gentle treatment, sharply enough to cause him to grunt ever so slightly in surprise — right before he felt Levi pull away so that he could scrape his teeth on his jaw and then at his neck, and then directly underneath his adams apple,  _ biting  _ him purposefully and hard enough the last time to make Erwin gasp and then flinch from where he sat in the tub.

Of course, the sensation went straight to his dick, too, because he didn’t mind that sort of thing at all, and actually found it a bit amusing considering that Levi had bitten him more than once when he’d been a kitten. He might have even teased him for it at that point, he thought, if Levi’s exuberant roughness hadn’t been contagious, going straight to his head and riling him up to the point that he could barely think about anything else  _ other  _ than the sudden urge he had to bend him over the nearest surface, but it was and it was hard to refrain, and it all meant that Erwin was now running short of the patience and control that it would take to stop to tease him in the first place.

Still, though, he kept Levi in the bath and ended up opening his mouth to speak anyway a moment later, when, after Erwin tried to angle his head to find Levi’s lips again and instead found it pulled back when Levi tightened his fingers in his hair suddenly and  _ tugged,  _ he sat up from where he’d still been casually leaning back against the porcelain in response, moving so quickly that he startled Levi into a gasp and nearly knocked him off balance enough so that he instinctively grabbed at the edge of the tub to catch himself. 

Of course, considering as how that had been Erwin’s aim, he steadied him too, wrapping an arm around Levi’s waist and squeezing his ass so hard with his other hand that it all but crushed their hips together, holding him in place so that  _ he  _ could attack  _ his  _ throat without interruption, and apparently emitting some kind of growling sound low in his chest as he buried his face into Levi’s neck too — one that he didn’t even spare a thought to until Levi let out a huff and then opened his mouth to say something about it.

_ “Dog.” _ He called him, exhaling the word in what was surely a pleasure-filled sigh because of how Erwin was now hungrily mouthing at his neck. 

Levi had relented and tilted his head to the side to allow him to do so, and it was that — along with the playful glint that Erwin caught in his lidded eyes when he sneaked a peek up at him — which made it clear that he wasn’t insulting him, but just teasing, although Erwin probably wouldn’t have argued the point either way, what with how he was practically pawing at Levi and grunting like an animal at that point anyway.

“I thought cats were supposed to be afraid of dogs?” He said then though, letting out a huff of laughter and unable to keep the smile off his face when Levi scoffed.  

“Yeah. Sometimes.” He said, his voice breathy as he shifted in Erwins lap. Doing so in an effort to pointedly grind his renewed erection along Erwin’s skin, Levi took advantage of the distraction that it caused and grabbed at his shoulders, pushing him backward so that he hit the porcelain and sat reclining against the tub all over again. “But this one’s not.” 

Before Erwin could react to  _ that  _ inflaming statement, Levi was kissing him again, covering Erwin’s lips with his own and, as if to  _ prove  _ what he’d just said, reaching down between them so that he could wrap thin fingers around Erwin’s cock. Immediately, he squeezed him a bit, and immediately, Erwin let out a shaky exhale at the feeling, breaking the kiss that Levi had just started because of how sensitive he was by then, and how even just that simple touch had caused a sharp jolt of pleasure to flood his senses. It was good, he thought, and  _ relieving _ , and amazingly enough, Levi did not stop there, instead using his hand to stroke him a few times — light and slow, without much of a rhythm — as he moved his mouth down to Erwin’s jaw, pressing it to his skin much more gently than he had any other time that night as if he could sense just how...well, intense these first few touches were for him. 

His heavy breathing probably gave it away, Erwin thought, as well as the way that he’d almost stiffened and dug his fingers into where he held onto Levi because the sensations were very nearly overwhelming, but eventually, after a few more moments, his head cleared a bit, and he lifted a hand to cup the back of Levi’s skull, directing his lips back to his own so excitedly that they nearly clacked teeth. 

Rather than that, though, Levi just melted against him seamlessly and tugged at his cock more firmly — his small hands, Erwin could already tell, were easily going to be the death of him — and after that, after Levi made a small noise in his throat that seemed to indicate whatever control he’d managed to build up again was now rapidly slipping, it became obvious that whatever teasing and games they’d been getting up to were over.

Within a few more seconds, in fact, they were moving together, grinding against each other because Levi had let go of Erwin’s length just long enough to grab his own too so that both their cocks were now held pressed together inside his tight fist, and Erwin’s hips had responded by shifting forward all on their own. He gasped, too, and had grabbed the edge of the tub for leverage so that he  _ could  _ move in such a way, of course, but he’d barely even realized he’d done that either — not until Levi pulled back, anyway, to sit up straighter and brace himself with one hand behind Erwin’s head as well. With his other, obviously, he began to stroke them both and then rolled his ass forward to meet Erwin’s hips, moving energetically enough so that inside of his palm, their cocks slid against each other in such a tantalizing way that the fingers of  _ Erwin’s  _ free hand curled into Levi’s skin.

“Levi.” He said too, only just managing to catch Levi’s eyes practically glazing over in lust in response before his jaw went slack and he had to squeeze his own shut, exhaling noisily at the pleasurable friction and then angling his head so that he could bury it against Levi’s neck.  

He mouthed at him there with little coordination, pressing his teeth down into Levi’s skin and echoing the moan he let out with one of his own, having not stopped reaching with his hips since he’d started. It was like he was thrusting up into Levi’s hand, really, although he couldn’t actually move as much as he would have normally because of the way Levi was sitting on top of his legs and his position in the tub — his feet slipped whenever he planted them down anywhere, and he couldn’t dig his heels in for purchase — but by then, Levi was grinding himself in Erwin’s lap eagerly enough for the both of them anyway.

It was like he was riding him, in fact, and when Erwin pulled away in the effort to get an eyeful, the sight of Levi, steadily undulating on top of him with a blissful expression on his face, did not cause him to retract the thought. Even it if had, though, it wouldn’t have mattered because it wasn’t like this wasn’t  _ just  _ as amazing to him right then either, because the pleasure that seemed to rush throughout his body from the tips of his toes and fingers and into groin was almost all he could think about, the twin sensations of Levi’s palm and cock sliding along both sides of his own proving to be enough to begin to undo him rather quickly. 

The way he could feel his release building already made that clear enough, he thought, but Levi, Levi who looked so beautiful with his flushed face, swollen, red-bitten lips, and loosened strands of hair that had come forward to fall into his eyes, was well on the way there too — if his ragged gasping and tightly drawn brown said anything, anyway.  Remembering how he had come apart so easily earlier, Erwin wondered which one of them do so first this time, and found himself drawing Levi in for a heated, open-mouthed kiss with the sudden and renewed urge to do all that he could to get him there again, reaching around, too, so that he could squeeze his ass again before he slipped his fingers between his cheeks purposefully. 

Pressing two of them over Levi’s entrance, he rubbed at him there, relishing in the sharp gasp that it wrung out of Levi — one that turned into a shaky, breathy moan that he emitted into Erwin’s mouth as the hand he’d been using to stroke them both faltered a bit. It only took a second for him to get back on track afterward, but his movements became more desperate very quickly, as it became obvious to Erwin that even if he hadn’t slipped anything inside him, Levi seemed to enjoy being touched there. 

He’d had to grab at Erwin’s neck with his free hand for purchase and then whimpered readily, in fact, when he alternated between groping one of his cheeks roughly and then dragging his fingers that much harder over what lay between, and although Levi had still been kissing him — the movements of their lips wet and messy and uncoordinated, though — his mouth eventually slipped away, ending up open and slack, brushing against Erwin’s cheek from where his forehead was now pressed right against the side of his. 

He could feel Levi’s hot, heavy breath hitting his face, and by then, the heat in Erwin’s belly had grown into something almost just as uncontrollable as that, something that was making him jerk his hips upward because of how Levi continued to work them both in his hand and move on top of him. Still, though, with how Levi was now basically a bowstring waiting to snap in his arms, he wasn’t surprised when he came all of a sudden, exhaling noisily and seeming to all but collapse and go limp into Erwins bulk — with the exception of his fingers, which didn’t stop what they were doing under the water. 

Somehow he kept pumping them, Erwin thought, although his movements were jerky and he was squeezing Erwin’s neck so tightly that he imagined he might bruise, shivering through his orgasm while apparently still determined to see Erwin through the same. Luckily for them both, it wasn’t far away, as the pleasure growing inside Erwin had becoming overwhelming, the sensations and the arousal that came with witnessing Levi release again leaving him taut and trembling as his head fell backward and his eyes fluttered shut. 

He was going to come too, he thought with a groan,  _ fuck _ , it all felt so good and he was really,  _ really  _ going to come in just a few seconds, hard and blissfully and with a jolt because Levi was stroking him fast and he was right on the edge and this couldn’t  _ possibly  _ build any higher or he thought he might break—

Erwin’s orgasm was not a surprise either, but that didn’t mean it didn’t veritably sweep him off his feet, as the sudden rush that swept through him when he reached the peak of all that growing tension seemed to dull his senses to everything else but that — at least for a moment or two where he shuddered, gasping and mindlessly seeking to draw it out with a few more thrusts from his hips before he was vaguely aware that Levi was now holding his neck with both hands and mouthing at his chin. His lips were on it, he realized, and then they were covering Erwin’s mouth next, stealing the breath from his lungs all over again before he had even had a chance to open his eyes.

Still, though, he lifted a hand to hold Levi’s waist and kissed him back while he came down completely over the next few seconds, eventually having to part for air as he all but went limp against the back of the tub. On top of him, Levi had already done the same — except having collapsed onto his chest — but at that point he made a small sound and then buried his face into Erwin’s neck, wrapping his arms around it too and letting out something that sounded like a quiet, blissful sigh when Erwin shifted to hug him close. Like that, they stayed still for what must have been at least five minutes, as Levi did not immediately paw at him for more like he had after the first time he’d come. 

No, instead he seemed content on lying there in Erwin’s arms all pressed against him, catching his breath and waiting for his heartbeat to return to normal and allowing Erwin to stroke his back, something that he did automatically at first, but kept up when it became apparent that Levi was in no hurry to move. Was he going to fall asleep? The question crossed Erwins mind, but he found that he liked how Levi felt in his arms regardless and thought the way he was basically clinging to him now to be delightful, what with his warm body pressed against his and his chest rising and falling evenly over Erwin’s, anyway, and how he shifted his head every so often, pushing his face more against Erwins neck or over his shoulder in a way that caused Erwin to muse that...well, that Levi had become as cuddly as a  _ kitten _ all of a sudden, a large, particularly cute one that Erwin could not resist kissing multiple times on top of the head while he held him. 

Almost marveling at how docile he’d become, Erwin still half-expected him to perk back up once they climbed out of the bath — the water was getting cold, and they eventually had no choice — as he remembered how much energy he’d had before despite the late hour, and how he’d wondered if Levi even bothered to sleep at all on this night because he might see doing so as a waste of his 24 hours. Erwin would understand if that was the case, but pleasantly enough, Levi was all too happy to climb into bed with him to rest for a bit too, crawling up from the foot of the mattress after Erwin had practically collapsed there with a towel around his waist because he’d suddenly found himself very,  _ very  _ exhausted. 

The coffee he’d drank had, of course, worn off long ago, and he was pretty sure that the orgasm he’d experienced would have made him sleepy even if it had happened during the middle of the day rather than 3:30 A.M. Considering as how he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been up this late, he really, really wanted to lie down for a moment and rest his eyes, but he also couldn’t deny that the thought of cuddling with Levi under the covers had its appeal too. The idea made his insides flutter, in fact, with warmth and excitement of a different kind rather than the purely desirous, lust-driven feelings he’d had in the bath, and he smiled when Levi followed him, carefully crawling on his hands and knees towards Erwin up from the foot of the bed with his eyes locked on Erwin’s own.

When he reached where he’d laid his head down on a pillow he leaned over Erwin to give him a slow, lazy kiss, and watched Erwin in that same position after they’d parted while he hastily pulled the towel off so that he could peel back the covers to climb underneath them. Only noticing that Levi wore a peculiar expression and had not done so until after he was settled again, Erwin raised an eyebrow, experiencing a brief moment of doubt regarding his assumption of whether Levi wanted to join him in bed or not. Before he could really feel concerned, though, or say anything about it, he noticed that Levi was biting his bottom lip and...well,  _ blushing _ , and that the look on his face actually made him appear  _ shy  _ rather than unsure or anything else that might be negative.

Why, though? Why would he be shy about something like this when he’d been so  _ forward  _ in the bathroom, when he’d stripped and enticed Erwin to join him in the tub with his nakedness as if it had been nothing? Erwin wasn’t entirely sure, but regardless of that, he found Levi’s reaction to be so incredibly endearing and adorable that he wasn’t even sure he could stand it.

“Levi.” He said then, leaning over and sitting up onto an elbow so that he could give Levi a kiss on the cheek. Unable to help a small smile from appearing on his face, he lingered there for a moment too, tugging at the blankets in front of Levi a bit to show him what he wanted before he lifted a hand to his back, caressing his skin there in a way that he hoped was comforting while he spoke. “I won’t bite. Come here.”

Frowning — no, scowling, really, although Erwin could tell it was all for show — Levi looked down to the bed and back up again into Erwin’s eyes, pausing for only another moment before he clicked his tongue, playfully swatted Erwin’s hand away, and moved so that he could squirm under the blankets and join him. 

“I know that.” He scoffed too, as Erwin shifted to throw an arm over his middle before he had even gotten settled. 

Tugging Levi closer as he did so, Erwin just hummed in response and immediately pressed his face to the back of Levi’s neck when he rolled over onto his side, already feeling warmer now that he was burrowed in his bed — the storm seemed to have brought a cold front through, he thought, and his house had gotten rather chilly — and longing to share some of that with Levi. Sure enough, the first renewed touch of his chest against Levi’s back nearly made him sigh in contentment from the heat of Levi’s skin on his own, and although he had already closed his eyes, he opened them back up when he sensed that Levi had stopped moving again and was still propped up on one elbow. 

He hadn’t yet laid down or relaxed all the way, and was, in fact, looking over his shoulder at Erwin’s face, worrying at his bottom lip again with red cheeks and an expression that was surprisingly open. He appeared to be almost forlorn, Erwin thought, or like he’d just realized something that hurt his heart, but of course, a split second after Erwin caught sight of him like that he wiped the look off his face and collapsed onto his side, all but burying his head into his pillow in one smooth, quick motion. 

“Levi?” Erwin asked though, finding that this, along with the way he’d hesitated earlier, piqued his curiosity, and made him wonder if Levi’s reaction to all of this ran deeper than just a bit of bashfulness. 

Did he not want to lie with him, or was it something else? If it was the former, Erwin thought, than that would be fine because he didn’t want to force Levi to do anything that he wasn’t comfortable with, but if it was the latter...well, then Erwin wasn’t going to force Levi to tell him, but he found that he couldn’t deny that he wanted to know just in case there was something that he could do to help.

“It’s nothing.” Was Levi’s predictable response to his question, though, uttered a second later as —  _ un _ predictably enough — he grabbed Erwin’s hand and pulled his arm tighter around him and up to his chest. “I’m just worried you’re going to have fucking gas under here.”

Snorting at that, Erwin opened his mouth to tell Levi he wouldn’t but then closed it again, knowing that he couldn’t keep any promises about that but also unable to dismiss Levi’s behavior as easily as Levi seemed to want him to. Even so, though, he knew he had no choice but to leave it because it wasn’t his place to pry — they barely knew each other, after all, and Erwin had no idea what was going to happen once Levi turned back into a cat again — but it was at least clear enough now that Levi was fine with being near him in the bed, something that became more and more so after Erwin pressed closer to him so that he could fit his hips up against his backside and tuck his knees up underneath Levi’s own. 

Like that, it didn’t take long for Erwin to forget about Levi’s strange expression from before in favor of how toasty he felt — inside and out — and when he also couldn’t stop thinking about how perfectly Levi fit against him like that, unable to keep the corners of his lips from curling up even after he closed his eyes because of how he was gradually melting into his embrace. It wasn’t that he’d still been especially tense or anything, Erwin knew, but as the minutes passed he’d clearly settled down and was in the middle of falling asleep, a realization which pleased Erwin because he rather liked the thought that Levi was comfortable enough around him to do so. 

Burying his face into Levi’s hair, he held him like that and could sense himself drifting off too as he focused on the soothing rise and fall of Levi’s chest beneath where their hands were interlocked, the sound of his breathing — which grew more and more even by the minute — proving to be a comfort, and eventually, just before Erwin slipped away into unconsciousness, ending up being joined by another sound, one that amazed Erwin, that startled him, and that had his eyes flying open all over again in both awe and surprise. Levi, content, apparently, just as much as he had been that afternoon as a cat on Erwin’s lap on the bench, nuzzled back against him one last time and suddenly began to purr. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I have to go to the grocery store later to get some things for dinner, and I was thinking...why don’t you come out with me? Would you like that? We could go get the food and then eat lunch somewhere. I know—
> 
> “Out?” Levi interrupted before Erwin could finish, going completely still and then fixing him with an obvious expression of ‘did I hear you right?’
> 
> Because Erwin was already prepared for this — and had been about to explain it to him anyway — he did not even skip a beat before he answered. “Yes. I’ve been thinking about it, and it won’t be hard to hide your tail and your ears. All we have to do is get you a hat and one of my hoodies, and—
> 
> “Hoodies?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the delay but this fic has just turned into So Much. thanks to anyone still sticking around and for bearing with me <3

Erwin hadn’t intended to sleep any longer than Levi did, but when his alarm went off at 7:00 A.M. for the job he wasn’t going to that day, he woke up with something of a start and found himself alone in bed, left in the cold morning air with the sheets pooled around his waist and the question of whether or not everything that happened the night before had been a dream. Had he imagined it all, he wondered?

He didn’t think so, as the memories of Levi, the peculiar cat he’d spent time befriending over the past few weeks in town, appearing on his doorstep in the form of a man certainly  _ felt  _ real, he thought, as did the recollections he held of everything else that happened afterward, of smooth, supple skin underneath his hands and soft kisses against his lips, of pleasure and warmth and excitement, too, and the strange but comforting sensation of a gentle purr vibrating throughout his body while he slowly drifted off into a deep, restful, uninterrupted sleep. 

All of it had been incredible, but perhaps that was just the thing: was it  _ too  _ amazing,  _ too  _ fantastical to be true? 24 hours before Erwin would have said yes, but as the fog of unconsciousness cleared from his mind more and he moved to turn his alarm off, he felt certain that it hadn’t been just a dream, that Levi was not just a figment of his imagination and he really had been in Erwin’s house that night. His suspicions were confirmed when he rolled over a moment later and found a tell-tale black hair resting on one of his pillows, as well as a very obvious indentation from his head along with the trace scent of the flowery smelling soap that Levi had used to clean himself off in the tub. 

Smiling at the realization, Erwin pressed his face into the bedding and inhaled, feeling his heart skip a beat at the memory of Levi lying there. He was glad it had all been real, he thought, because it had been nice, and although he hadn’t mentioned it and  _ his  _ dry spell was surely not as lengthy or as dry as Levi’s had been, it had been a long time since he’d had company like that and an even longer time since he’d enjoyed it so much. However, where was Levi now? Had he left? Erwin hoped not, and hoped that he hadn’t done anything to make Levi feel that he would be unwelcome after he’d woken up, either.

Thankfully, that line of thinking was interrupted almost as soon as it had started when Erwin realized he could hear some sort of strange sound coming from downstairs. It was faint, and he wasn’t sure what it was, really — the noise was a light rushing one — but it was there when his house should have otherwise been silent, and unless some of the actual cats from the army of them that lived around his house had finally gotten inside, the only other thing Erwin could think of that could be causing it was Levi.

Climbing out of bed, he wondered what he was doing and when he had woken up. He felt a little guilty for sleeping in, he thought, when he wasn’t sure how many things Levi would be able to find to occupy himself that he also knew how to work, but then again, he had seemed pretty capable when it came to figuring things out. He was sharp, Erwin had been able to tell, and he’d also been rather interested in his bookshelf the night before, which he supposed made sense when reading was probably one of the primary ways Levi had used to entertain himself early in the 18th century. 

There was no television, after all, or video games, but surprisingly, after Erwin went downstairs — once he’d used the restroom, brushed his teeth, thrown on pajama pants, and made sure his hair didn’t look stupid in the mirror, for some reason — Levi was not curled up on his couch in his living room, relaxed, warm, and comfortable with a book like he had hoped. Instead, he was in the kitchen standing at the sink with his hands wet, apparently having taken it upon himself to do something that made Erwin balk right away when he caught sight of him: wash his dirty dishes. 

“Levi?” He asked, realizing, at that point, that the sound he’d heard upstairs had been water rushing through his pipes to be used at the sink. As he’d stepped closer to his kitchen it had been accompanied by the clinking and clatter of cutlery and plates, too, but it all stopped when he walked in and Levi froze with a bowl grasped inside one palm while he held a dripping, soapy cloth in the other. “Ah...what are you doing?”

“Cleaning.” Levi answered almost matter-of-factly, setting down the bowl, though, as he looked over at Erwin and watched him speak.

He stared for a moment, having glanced at him with wide eyes as Erwin, unable to help it, did the same, because not only was Levi standing there with his tail sticking up into the air — the tip was curled charmingly, but that and his ears were a bit surreal to see all over again for just a second — he was wearing Erwin’s clothes again, and glimpsing Levi dressed in one of his shirts  _ now  _ had connotations that were...well, much,  _ much  _ different than when they’d just met and Levi had only been trying to get dry from the rain. 

After what they’d done, Erwin thought, it was suggestive, and he couldn’t deny that there was a part of him that rather liked how Levi looked with his clothing draped over him as if it was some kind of stamp. However, now wasn’t the time for him to be contemplating such things, he didn’t think, and so he offered Levi a warm smile instead, putting a damper on his rapidly heating blood so that he could walk over and reach out to turn the still running sink off himself. 

“Please don’t. You shouldn’t be doing anything like that, Levi, you’re a guest.” He said, glimpsing his broom propped up in one of the kitchen corners too. Had Levi been sweeping? The floor  _ did _ look cleaner, and Erwin fought back a sigh, again wishing he had woken up sooner so that Levi wouldn’t have ended up doing  _ chores  _ when he only had so many hours left to be a human. “I’m sorry I slept so long. You should have gotten me up.”

At that suggestion, Levi scoffed, setting the cloth he’d been using down on the edge of the counter — but not before he’d taken the time to glance at Erwin’s chest, face, and eyes, in that exact order. “Why would I do that? I know you were tired. I kept you up all night; I’m not an idiot.”

“Yes, but—

“And these dishes were all piled up. Some of them looked like they’d been in here for a long time too, even before last night. Do you always leave shit in here like this?”

Erwin had kept his mouth open when he’d been interrupted — he’d been ready to tell Levi that he had  _ enjoyed  _ being kept up all night by him, and would be fine even if he’d only gotten a few hours of sleep — but closed it again at his question about the dishes, uncharacteristically finding himself at a loss for words for a split second because of the bluntness with which Levi had spoken. Then, though, he realized that Levi was not being rude and seemed like he was honestly curious, as if he was thinking that for all he knew customs had changed over the centuries to the point that  _ everyone  _ was a slob, but no, it was just Erwin, and no matter what he knew he didn’t want Levi to think that.

“No.” He said then, clearing his throat before giving Levi another smile. “Not  _ always _ . I was planning on taking care of it last night, actually, but then you showed up and distracted me.”

“Oh.” Levi replied, biting his lip while he stared up at him. 

He stood there for a moment like that, Erwin saw, next to him at the sink where he had absentmindedly put a hand against Levi’s back as if to lead him away from the dishwashing, and he looked so nice in the morning light that it only took a second before Erwin found himself with the sudden urge to bend over and kiss him. Could he? He wasn’t sure, even though the question seemed a bit ridiculous at first because of what they’d done not even a few hours ago, but that was then and this was now, and after they’d both slept and woken up the next morning, things felt a little more...well,  _ complicated.  _

Yes, Erwin had kissed Levi plenty the night before, but he wasn’t Erwin’s boyfriend. They hadn’t been on a date. Just because they’d had sex and he’d slept over didn’t mean that it was a one night stand, either, since Levi wasn’t just someone Erwin had brought home from a bar who would now leave, but...that was because Levi was a shapeshifter and Erwin had already told him he could stay there while he was human. That being said, though, perhaps treating the aftermath like an encounter devoid of attachment might be the best thing to do, he thought, as much as he admittedly didn’t want to. After all, he didn’t know how Levi felt about the matter, or if he even wanted to be kissed now despite how eager he had been for it earlier.

For all he knew, he thought, Levi didn’t even want Erwin’s arm around him right then either because he’d gotten the release that he’d wanted — twice, actually — and it had been enough, and with that notion crossing his mind, Erwin let it slip away, and ignored the disappointment he felt when Levi did not immediately turn back to ask him why. Instead, he proposed that they eat breakfast and asked if Levi was hungry, finding that his errant, foolish dismay was quickly replaced by amusement and warm delight when Levi’s ears perked up right away at the first mention of food.

It was cute, Erwin thought, but then again, that was the problem, as he was starting to realize that he found  _ everything  _ that Levi did to be charming, increasingly so, to the point that it made his heart flutter with something more innocent than the lust that had filled his belly the night before. Of course, that didn’t go away either, though, because Levi continued to be  _ oh so tempting  _ with his pouty, pink,  _ kissable  _ lips and his mostly bare legs, and with thoughts like that going through Erwin’s mind from basically the moment he woke up, it was no wonder that it would all continue to grow exponentially worse as the day wore on.

Before that, though, they ate breakfast. Or rather, Erwin ate breakfast, while Levi, much like he had the night before, ate a seemingly random assortment of foods that were traditionally not meant to be eaten in the morning. He did have cereal to start with — Cocoa Puffs, which he seemed excited to taste, for whatever reason, even after he’d squinted at Erwin suspiciously when he told them they were made from grains — along with tea and frozen waffles, but then expressed interest in trying twinkies, chips and salsa, and Spaghetti-O’s, all of which he’d pointed out without Erwin even getting a chance to offer him anything. 

Apparently, he’d spent time exploring Erwins pantry that morning before he’d started cleaning and before Erwin had woken up, and although Levi was clearly delighted to try anything, Erwin found himself wishing that he had something better to offer him than snacks and frozen or pre-processed food. True, he’d promised him that he’d cook him a steak that night which would be fresh, but he wondered if Levi would have preferred to go out to the cafe for breakfast, where he could have tried eggs benedict or huevos rancheros or a fancy yogurt parfait — things that Erwin’s skill level probably would have prevented him from making Levi anyway even if he’d had the ingredients. 

Perhaps he’d like to go there for lunch instead, Erwin thought, because he was going to have to go to the grocery store anyway later to get food for dinner, and...well, he was pretty sure that at this rate, the only substantial thing he would have left to offer Levi for their midday meal would be bologna. Wouldn’t Levi enjoy the chance to go out into the world like that anyway? By his own admission all he did when he was human was hide because he was afraid of getting discovered, but Erwin didn’t think that his cat features would be all that difficult to disguise. With that in mind, Erwin felt that he would be remiss to not at least propose the idea to him — he still felt determined to help Levi make the most out of his day as much as he could, after all — as the last thing he wanted to do was force Levi to stay inside his house like some kind of prisoner while he went out into public alone.  

That didn’t sound very fun, and Erwin suspected that it wouldn’t make Levi feel nice either considering how he had described himself as a ‘freak’ the night before. However, even if Erwin thought he would be interested, he still had the feeling that they would both have to proceed very carefully — although mostly him, because Levi’s existence was a secret, he knew, and must remain a secret no matter what. Obviously, he did not want to be exposed to anyone else, which meant that this was a slightly bigger deal than what a normal, quick run to the supermarket might be. No, Erwin would have to make sure Levi was comfortable with how he was covered up, which meant that he would have to trust Erwin too, something that would make him feel horrible if Levi did so and he ended up failing him.  

“Listen, Levi.” He said with all of that in mind, though, once Levi stopped eating and seemed to finally have had his fill of food. 

He’d just finished his cup of tea, too, while Erwin was on his third refill of coffee — although he hated to admit it, around three hours of sleep was  _ not  _ enough for him to handle without caffeine — and was sitting next to him at Erwin’s kitchen table, playing around with Erwin’s cell phone after he’d pulled it out of his pocket to check the time. Watching him pause and look up when he spoke, Erwin proceeded carefully, taking the time to make sure he chose his words right so that Levi wouldn’t hear his idea and automatically balk.

“I have to go to the grocery store later to get some things for dinner, and I was thinking...why don’t you come out with me? Would you like that? We could go get the food and then eat lunch somewhere. I know—

“Out?” Levi interrupted before Erwin could finish, going completely still and then fixing him with an obvious expression of ‘did I hear you right?’

Because Erwin was already prepared for this — and had been about to explain it to him anyway — he did not even skip a beat before he answered. “Yes. I’ve been thinking about it, and it won’t be hard to hide your tail and your ears. All we have to do is get you a hat and one of my hoodies, and—

“Hoodies?”

“It’s...ah, it's basically a thick, loose shirt that you pull over your head, and mine should be big and baggy enough on you so that you can keep your tail tucked underneath.” 

“Oh. I don’t know...” Levi responded slowly, looking incredulous, certainly, but also sounding a bit interested in the idea too — just like Erwin had hoped for. “If someone fucking sees that I have a cat tail, they’ll flip their shit, and then—

“They won’t. The hoodie will probably come down to the tops your legs, and it’s cold out. No one will look twice at you for dressing this way, I promise.”

Pausing at that, Levi bit his bottom lip and assessed Erwin closely, staring at him as if he was trying to gauge how confident he actually was in that notion while he thought.

“Okay.” He said a few seconds later, speaking slowly but, in Erwin’s opinion, looking and sounding like he  _ wanted  _ to say yes — something which only lasted for a second before he’d scoffed and then shifted to throw an arm over the back of his chair beside him. “But what the fuck am I supposed to wear for shoes? And pants? I can’t go out in  _ these  _ things _. _ ”

Gesturing down to what he was currently wearing over his legs — the same pair of Erwin’s running shorts from the night before — Levi made a face, one that clearly indicated he was  _ appalled  _ at the thought of going out in something like that. Luckily for him, Erwin also knew that wasn’t feasible and hadn’t been going to suggest that he leave the house with nothing on his legs except for a pair of thin shorts, but he knew this was where the potential problem lay. 

Dressing Levi in a shirt or a hoodie of his was all well and good, he thought, because people often wore oversized things like that and it wouldn’t look odd or comical. Pants in Erwin’s size, though, as well as any of his shoes, were a different story, as they would almost certainly look ridiculous on Levi while also probably hindering his ability to  _ walk  _ without drawing attention to himself.

He didn’t want any of that at all, Erwin knew, even if he was covered up, but he was just...so  _ small, _ especially in comparison to him. He would drown in any of his clothing, but what could they do? Swallowing — because thinking about that in detail for even just a few seconds made Erwin’s heart rate increase and a smile threaten to break out onto his face — he pondered it. If they needed something Levi’s size, could they maybe get away with Levi wearing the riding boots and the pants he’d arrived in the night before? 

That would make things easy, but then again, his boots were clearly not modern because they buttoned up the sides and looked like something a pirate might wear, and his suit was made of  _ black velvet _ . The ends of the arms and pants legs had been intricately embroidered too, Erwin remembered, with gold thread, and although all of that — along with the lace, the cravat, and the fancy, white stockings he wore over his feet, too — would have made Levi look quite stylish in  _ his  _ time, here and now it would look strange, even without being underneath a plain, oversized, mismatching and shabby-in-comparison hoodie. 

He’d probably be cold anyway because his pants had only come down to his knees, but thinking about it, that gave Erwin another idea. Didn’t he have some leggings, somewhere, for running? He thought he did packed away — he’d ran in college which was why he had the shorts, too, but had long ago given  _ that  _ up — and if so, they might fit Levi better because they were stretchy. He’d also been smaller back then in the waistline himself, and although they were knee length as well, that would hopefully mean they would come down longer on Levi’s legs, but not so far as to drag over his feet and onto the ground. What could they do about shoes, though? 

That, Erwin was stuck on. Anything  _ he  _ wore on  _ his  _ feet — which were already abnormally large even for someone his height — was bound to look like they actually belonged to a clown on Levi, but that was probably better than him wearing his 18th century riding boots so...well, they would probably just have to make do. Perhaps they could stuff some socks into the front of a pair of canvas sneakers Erwin owned, Erwin thought, so that Levi’s tiny,  _ cute  _ feet wouldn’t be sliding around inside of them, and which would be lightweight and non-bulky and go with the whole casual, discreet look that Erwin was trying to create for him there too. 

“I have some ideas.” Erwin said then, smiling reassuringly at Levi from across the table. “I think it will work. Even if the clothing is a little big on you, no one will suspect what you are. Other than those two things, you look like everyone else anyway. Obviously we’ll have to let you try it all on to see, but what do you think?”

“I…” Levi started, opening his mouth so quickly that Erwin was sure he’d been about to say that he thought the idea was  _ great _ . His eyes had brightened considerably during this entire conversation, in fact, but before he could speak at all he’d stopped himself instead, adopting a deep frown while his tail suddenly began to lash back and forth behind him.  “I dunno. It sounds like a lot of fucking trouble.”

“Trouble?” Erwin asked, drawing his brows down in confusion at that. 

What did Levi mean? Was he suggesting that...that taking him out was some kind of a bother?

“Yeah.” Levi muttered, now staring down at the table, the wall, the floor — _anything,_ Erwin thought, but him. “I mean...you’ve done a lot. You gave me all this food and shit, and I know I’ve been here for a while already, so—

“Levi.” Erwin interrupted, shaking his head and frowning himself because — even though he hadn’t let Levi finish — he now knew for sure what he was trying to say: that if Erwin wanted, he could go, and that he didn’t have to keep helping him because he was apparently worried that he’d been there too long and overstayed his welcome.

Obviously, Erwin thought, the notion was ludicrous for many reasons. Hadn’t he told Levi the night before that he could be a guest there for as long as he wanted?

“I don’t want you to leave, if that’s what you’re thinking. I told you that you could stay here while you’re...while you’re human, didn’t I?” He said, speaking slowly as Levi listened and bit his lip.

“Yeah.” He said after a moment, finally lifting his gaze to meet Erwin’s eye again, he saw, but shrugging one shoulder before he then crossed his arms and made his expression unreadable. “But that was last night.”

“So? Why would it change now?” Erwin replied, strangely finding that it was becoming harder and harder for him to keep the smile off his face the more he thought about Levi’s assumptions.

Of course, it wasn’t that he  _ liked  _ the idea of Levi believing he was bothersome enough to be kicked out, obviously, but his thoughts on the matter were just so far from the actual truth that it was almost amusing. Even more than that, though, was the fact that Levi seemed to be growing slightly flustered from the question that Erwin had posed in response. He scowled now, Erwin saw, and tightened his crossed arms, and his ears flattened on top of his head in what had now become a familiar expression of agitation.

“I dunno.” He muttered, while Erwin’s lips finally curved up into a small smile. “I was just fucking asking.”

“Well, I don’t mind you being here; I promise. You’re not bothering me. I was actually worried that you’d already left when I woke up.” 

“Huh? Why?” 

“Because…”

“Because why?”

Erwin paused briefly at that, having trailed off before because  _ why  _ was indeed the question. He already knew he’d enjoyed Levi’s company — or rather, what he’d done with him — the night before because it had just been so long since he’d spent the night with another person. However, it was more than that too, and Erwin really only had to think about it for a few seconds to figure out the reason: it was nice, he thought, to have someone in his house in general, to have someone there to talk to since...well, he hadn’t managed to make any friends whatsoever since he’d moved there. 

No, he’d been busy and distracted and hadn’t realized how lonely he’d started to feel, and the fact that his company happened to be someone as attractive and charming and interesting as Levi was an added bonus. Could he tell Levi any of that, though? Would he balk? What if he didn’t want to hear anything like that from him? Immediately after thinking it, Erwin dismissed those thoughts despite his inability to do so earlier in regards to the urge he’d had to kiss Levi, deciding that even if it would come off as too much, he just couldn’t let Levi continue to think that he was suddenly no longer invited to stay inside of his home.

“Because, Levi, I’ve honestly enjoyed having you here. My house is usually so quiet that it’s been nice to have some company.” He continued, offering him what he hoped was a soft, easygoing and friendly smile. “And I’ve been so busy at work...I probably already needed a day off anyway.”

Although Erwin’s last comment had been basically uttered as an aside, it was, for some reason enough to cause Levi — who had  _ just  _ met Erwin’s gaze again with his eyes slightly widened and his lips parted as if he couldn’t  _ believe  _ what he was saying — to feel some sense of alarm, as his mouth snapped shut and he jerked himself forward so quickly that it caused Erwin’s brows to fly up over his forehead in surprise.

“What?” Levi asked him, wearing an expression now that Erwin could only describe as  _ incredulous _ . “You’re not going to your job?!”

“No.” Erwin replied, shaking his head and feeling puzzled.

What was the big deal about that? Why was Levi so concerned?

“Won’t you get in trouble?”

“No. I haven’t missed one day since I started. It’ll be alright.”

“But what if you can’t pay your mort-guage? I mean...shit, your  _ mortgage. _ Then...uh, they’ll repossess your house, right? And ruin your credit score!”

If Erwin hadn’t been so impressed that Levi had remembered all of that —  _ and  _ slightly touched that he was really that worried — he might have snorted in amusement, as he was pretty sure that Levi still didn’t know what half of those words actually even meant.

“That won’t happen.” He just said though, only seeking to reassure Levi instead of making him feel stupid for something that he couldn’t help. Smiling at him, he lifted the cup he’d been drinking coffee out of but then frowned again when he realized it was empty, immediately moving to stand up as a result so that he could go and get more. “I already have the money for the payment, and they probably wouldn’t take the house from me right away. Banks are more forgiving than they were in your time, but besides, I’ll still get paid for today either way.”

At that, Levi’s concerned expression twisted into something else. 

“Wait.” He said, uncrossing his arms and leaning forward over the table. “You mean, you’re getting paid without being there?”

“Yes. Some jobs give you so many days a year to use like that, and I’m lucky enough to have one that does. Even if I didn’t, though, I’m the director of the department. No one would say anything to me.”

“Director of the department?”

“It means I’m the  _ boss.” _

Erwin couldn’t help it; he smirked at Levi from across the kitchen, and realized only afterward that he’d spoken in a rather flirtatious tone. Hoping, then, that Levi wouldn’t take it the wrong way — he was only teasing, because his department only consisted of 8 to 9 people and it actually wasn’t that impressive — he found himself smiling widely when he didn’t, instead making a disbelieving face at Erwin before he snorted indelicately and sat back in his seat. 

“Oh, you’re the boss, huh?” He asked, raising an eyebrow when Erwin nodded.

“I am.”

“Then why don’t you act like one and get me some more Cocoa Poofs.”

“Puffs, Levi. Cocoa  _ Puffs.” _

“Whatever.”

Unable to hold in his laughter at that exchange — partly because he couldn’t believe Levi was apparently still hungry — Erwin returned to the table with his fourth cup of coffee and picked up the box of cereal, happy to pour him another bowl even if he didn’t really understand how  _ him  _ being the boss meant that  _ he _ had to serve  _ Levi _ , finding that the smile on his face only grew while he thought about it and while Levi stared up at him and watched him expectantly. He already had his spoon in one hand, Erwin saw, and he assumed that he was going to dig in as soon as he added the milk, so much so that he moved to head back towards the counter without giving it another thought once he was done. 

Before he could even take a step, though, he felt a hand on his wrist and found himself stopped, the sudden sensation of Levi’s fingers tightening over his skin causing him to turn back around so that he could see what he wanted. With his brows raised, he felt surprised, especially when he immediately saw Levi shifting in his chair, readjusting so that he was on his knees in the seat and now almost face to face with Erwin, and although his mind was full of questions, anything he might have asked out loud died on his lips when Levi licked his own and tugged him closer, pausing for only a single second longer before he fixed him with an intent expression that could only be described as  _ mischievous _ . 

His eyes were bright, Erwin saw, and dancing with something that also seemed to have him biting back a smile, and because it was a look that he  _ knew  _ he had seen just a mere handful of hours ago in the bath, his heart suddenly started to pound in his chest rapidly. Suddenly, too, he was swallowing and feeling his cheeks warm with both excitement and wonder, and then grabbing onto the back of Levi’s chair and his waist almost on instinct, watching with rapt attention as Levi’s eyes fixed onto his mouth before he slid his hands up his chest and then grabbed his head, linking his fingers around the back of his neck so that he could pull him down for a soft, sweet, and surprisingly chaste, kiss.

Erwin only thought that because Levi’s embrace had been anything but the night before, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t any less warm or enjoyable now, either. On the contrary, Erwin found himself lost almost right away — after the initial surprise had worn off, because he hadn’t expected Levi to do that in the least — closing his eyes and moving his mouth to match Levi’s, but otherwise remaining very still, content, for obvious reasons, to let Levi hold him like that and kiss him how he wanted. His fingertips were cool over the skin of his face, Erwin thought, and he could again smell bath soap mixed in with tea and a scent that was obviously Levi’s own, one that made his heart sing along with the fact that Levi had curled his tail around both of their legs during the embrace. 

Erwin realized it when the furry tip brushed the small of his back, and he found that he was unable to keep the smile off his face at that point, unable to not experience a surge of happiness and delight over what Levi had just done — especially after how he’d assumed he didn’t want to be touched by Erwin at all not even an hour ago. Apparently he had been wildly wrong about that, he thought, which was more than fine with him, but still, because Levi had pulled away when he smiled and Erwin saw that his face was now bright red, he couldn’t help the ever present urge that he had to tease him.

“What was that for?” He murmured, while Levi wrinkled his nose at him and flattened his ears.

“What do you mean ‘what was that for?” He asked, making no move to stop Erwin when he wrapped an arm around his waist and used his free hand to brush back his long hair. “I touched your dick last night, and now I need to have a fucking reason to kiss you?”

Erwin let out a breathy laugh at that, and smiled wider when Levi scowled and simultaneously rubbed at his bare chest. “No. Not when I’ve been wanting to kiss you all morning too.”

“You wanted to kiss me, but you didn’t?”

“Yes. I thought about it, but I wasn’t sure if you’d still be interested in things like that.”

“Huh? Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know. I just...thought you might have gotten what you’d wanted, and been done. I wasn’t going to assume anything, especially since you only have so much time to be human. I—

Although Erwin had been about to say he was sure there were plenty of  _ other  _ things that Levi would like to spend time on too, he was interrupted when, after dramatically rolling his eyes, Levi reached up to grab his face again, jerking him right back down like he had before so that he could silence him with another kiss. This one was harder, Erwin thought, more eager and  _ pointed  _ as if Levi was trying to show him how much he was, in fact, still interested in things like that, and even though he hadn’t said as much, Erwin immediately got the hint. Yes, rather than continuing to explain himself because it obviously, clearly didn’t matter, he stopped talking and shut up, and closed his eyes and opened his mouth and this time did not resurface for a while after. 

“That was pretty stupid.” Levi murmured to him once he did so, though, once the movements of their lips had slowed and they’d both gradually pulled away. 

“Stupid?” Erwin asked in response, drawing his brows down in confusion because by then, he was not entirely sure of what Levi was talking about. He felt almost dazed, in fact, because of how he’d kissed him, taking his breath away over and over again and sweetly licking into his mouth in a way that had made his knees go weak, and because of the continued happiness he felt from now knowing that Levi still wanted his attention after all. Was  _ that _ what Levi was talking about? His assumption that he hadn’t? “What was stupid?”

“You know...what you said earlier. About thinking that I was done with a big, handsome guy like you.” Levi replied, confirming that indeed it was Erwin’s  _ clearly  _ foolish thinking. 

“Ah.” Erwin answered him, smiling down at Levi while he continued to cradle Erwin's face and bite his lip coyly. His gaze kept flickering in between his eyes and his mouth, Erwin saw, like he wasn’t truly yet ready to let go of him yet — his heart skipped a beat, he thought, at the notion and at Levi’s very flirtatious words — and because of that and because of what they’d already done, he definitely had to agree with Levis assessment,  _ not  _ that he was complaining in any way whatsoever. “Yes. I suppose it was stupid. Almost as much as you thinking that I’d want someone as gorgeous as you to leave.” 

Snorting at that, Levi rolled his eyes again but then looked away, gazing off into the distance for a moment while his expression faltered. Although his frown only lasted for a second, Erwin thought, it was long enough for him to notice, and long enough for him to suspect that — despite his blush — perhaps this wasn’t just a joke for Levi, that perhaps his line of thinking about being unwanted was far more real for him than just simple insecurity like Erwin’s had been. After all, he very clearly wasn’t used to things like this, Erwin remembered, which was a thought that made him sad, along with how he actually suspected that Levi had grabbed him for a kiss in the first place earlier because he’d been happy and grateful about Erwin telling him he liked his company. 

How long had it been since someone had showed him any real kindness, Erwin wondered? His behavior suggested that he hadn’t experienced many instances of it, Erwin thought, and although his chest had been aching with something fond before, he now felt his heart twinge with a bit of sympathy and something mournful. Experiencing a fresh wave of determination, too, to make Levi as happy as he could that day, Erwin swallowed and put a reassuring smile back on his face, lifting a hand to cup Levi’s cheek to ensure that he was looking at him again before he spoke. 

“Since I don’t want you to go…” He started, watching as Levi raised an eyebrow and leaned into his touch all the same. “Does that mean you’ll say yes? To leaving the house with me?”

Again, Levi bit his lip and paused for a few seconds, appearing to think like he had before — although this time Erwin sensed that it was all actually for show. He was teasing him, Erwin thought, because there was also something warm and mirthful dancing around behind his eyes, something that had him all but grinning before Levi even shrugged his shoulders and opened his mouth to finally answer his question. “Hm...okay. If the clothes fit.”

“Great!” Erwin exclaimed, unable to stop himself from pulling Levi into another tight hug, ducking his head down next so that he could plant an excited, extremely pleased kiss on his lips as soon as he had spoken. 

Feeling thrilled, suddenly, because of the fact that Levi had said yes and agreed to go into town with him, Erwin smiled widely and didn’t doubt for one moment that the clothes would work. Even if they didn’t, he thought, they would figure out something else, because he really, really found that he wanted to do this for him. He wanted to treat Levi like this and he wanted to help him have fun and be carefree, at least for a while, and also...well, after the embrace they’d shared and the things Levi had said to him, Erwin was unable to stop himself from thinking of this as something of a  _ date _ . How could he not? He’d already admitted to himself the night before that Levi was someone he would have asked out had they met in different circumstances, and now he’d essentially done so. Because of how they’d fooled around and what they’d continued to do, too, the outing wouldn’t be just a friendly one either, as whatever they were, Erwin thought, it wasn’t just  _ innocent _ . 

No, it was maybe romantic, and definitely sexual, because his friends did not grope his chest  _ or _ nuzzle and casually lap at his neck like Levi had started doing now — why was he licking him, Erwin wondered in the back of his mind, was this another cat thing? — nor did they make him feel like he wouldn’t ever be able to stop smiling while his heart pounded in his chest like he’d just run a marathon. That was how Levi made him feel, though, and even if he knew that this was probably stupid on his part and foolish, right then he didn’t care. Right then he was enjoying himself too much to worry about the repercussions for himself, and obviously, he could tell, Levi was too. 

He’d started purring again, Erwin noticed, after their conversation had trailed off and he’d just pressed himself closer, burrowing inside Erwin’s arms as best he could as if he was trying to soak up his warmth even while they remained in a standing position. It was cute and Levi was nice to hold, he thought, so he obviously did not mind, but he was still licking at Erwin’s neck, almost lazily now and in a way that didn’t seem lustful or anything even  _ if  _ that — plus all of the kissing, and touching — was certainly interesting to Erwin’s cock, and again, he wondered why. It  _ had _ to be a cat thing, he thought, but what? Was Levi trying to clean him? 

He’d never done that when he’d actually been in his non-human form, but the way he purred now and acted all...well,  _ cuddly,  _ reminded him of how Levi had rubbed up against his legs or bumped his head against his hand when he’d wanted petting and attention at the bench. Having a sudden thought at that, Erwin tightened his arms around Levi’s waist and then raised his other hand, carefully burying his fingers in Levi’s hair so that he could cup the back of his head. Like that, he rubbed at his scalp and then shifted his palm so that he could massage him right behind his ears, and although he braced himself for Levi to jerk away, much to his delight he instead did the opposite, tilting his head and leaning into Erwin’s touch, shifting and rubbing his head against his hand and now giving Erwin a full view of his face. 

His eyes were closed, he saw, and his expression looked very serene, and he made a  _ ‘pbbblrt’  _ sound in his throat that caused Erwin’s heart to actually twinge inside of his chest because it was just so  _ cute _ . It was also fascinating, he thought, to witness him behaving like a cat while in the form of a human, and he found that he rather liked it a lot. Levi, on the other hand, obviously didn’t share the same sentiment, and it was him moving his own head that snapped him out of whatever trance he’d seemed to have fallen into, because when Erwin scratched his ears again, he suddenly froze and the purring stopped, and he cracked one eye open to stare up at Erwin who was, of course, still smiling. 

“Fuck.” Levi swore, immediately twisting his expression into that of a scowl. His face turned red too, Erwin saw, and he frowned, biting his bottom lip and averting his eyes like he was embarrassed. “Shit. I didn’t mean...I was…”

“It’s alright.”

“Whatever. You distracted me, you bastard.”

“ _ I _ distracted  _ you? _ ”

“Yeah. I’m so used to being a damned cat that I start doing shit like that when I’m distracted.”

“I see. Still, I think you started it. You kissed me first, remember? Now your cereal has gone soggy.”

“What?!” Levi snapped at that, twisting away and out of Erwin’s arms so suddenly that it nearly made his eyes widen. 

He sat back down, too, and looked alarmed at the prospect of something being wrong with his food — the realization of which made Erwin chuckle — but then furrowed his brows in confusion, picking up his spoon before he moved to grab a bite while Erwin, in turn, looked on in surprise. 

“Levi, wait.” He said, reaching out as if to try to take the bowl. “I’ll get you some more.”

“It’s fine.” Levi replied though, now staring down intently at his food and spooning more of the Cocoa Puffs into his mouth — Cocoa Puffs that were indeed soggy and swollen from all of the milk.

“But—

“No. I’m not wasting it.”

Opening his mouth to protest again, Erwin paused and then closed it before he could, deciding that it was best not to argue when Levi was already halfway done with the bowl anyway. He didn’t seem to mind that the cereal had been sitting there for too long either, he thought, but that just made him curious. Was it because he truly didn’t mind it for whatever reason, or was it because he really was that determined not to waste it? He wanted to know — he suspected that the answer would result in him finding out more about how Levi had lived — but he wasn’t sure if he should ask, so he didn’t, instead taking his coffee mug and making his way back over so that he could pour himself another cup.

It had gone lukewarm, he thought, during the time that they’d been kissing — something that Erwin’s mind automatically wondered back to while Levi continued to eat. How could it not, he wondered? His lips still tingled from the tantalizing press of Levi’s own against his mouth, and his fingers, too, itched to touch his skin, to go back over there and turn what had been a relatively innocent embrace — at least in comparison to the night before — into something...well, decidedly less so. Yes, Erwin wanted Levi again, and he couldn’t deny it. In fact, he’d known from the moment he’d laid eyes on him that morning, but he hadn’t even dreamed of entertaining the thought that it would happen. 

Then, though, Levi had kissed him and told Erwin he  _ wasn’t done with him yet  _ — while calling him  _ big  _ and  _ handsome  _ again, which had made Erwin’s entire chest swell with pleasure — and even if he wasn’t entirely sure of what that entailed, he couldn’t help the way his imagination ran away with the idea. Still, despite that, he wouldn’t make a move, so to speak, until Levi again indicated that he wanted that too. This was his day, after all, and he wouldn’t dare take that away from him, but that didn’t mean he didn’t think about. That didn’t mean that their embrace and the feeling of Levi’s small hands all over his bare chest didn’t light a small fire inside of his belly either, one which grew from a few low, smoldering embers into something a bit hotter when Levi finally finished eating and they ended up back upstairs to get him dressed. 

That was after they’d relaxed in his living room again for an hour or two, though, playing chess — which Levi expressed interest in and was actually quite good at, although he couldn’t beat Erwin, who hadn’t been the captain of his high school chess club for nothing — and then looking at a travel book with plenty of pictures that Levi brought over, all because it was still quite early and Erwin knew the grocery store wouldn’t be open just yet. Although he managed to calm down a bit while sitting around like that, the fact that they eventually returned to his bedroom once it was time to get Levi his clothes — the place where Erwin had held Levi’s naked body in his arms just a few hours ago — did not help him to remain that way. 

No, it was especially bad, he thought, because they were now only a few yards away from the tub, too, and at that point, everything they’d done the night before seemed to come back to him in full force. Obviously, he had not forgotten, but standing there in front of his mattress where he’d laid out Levi’s clothes was a fresh reminder, as was the sight of their used towels in his laundry basket just a few yards away. Swallowing, Erwin longed to lay him back down onto the bed so that he could  _ really  _ distract him like Levi had accused him of earlier — he would make it worth his while, he’d already decided, should things lead to that again —  but Levi was very clearly not thinking about anything like that right then at all.

Instead, he was too busy studying the potential outfit that Erwin had put together for him, staring down at it on his bed with an expression on his face that made it seem like Erwin was asking him to wear an actual garbage bag or something rather than regular clothes.   

“Well?” Erwin still asked him, though, in case he was misinterpreting Levi’s crossed arms and judgmental frown for something else. “What do you think?”

“It’s...uh…” Levi started, scrunching up his nose while his eyes roved over what Erwin had gathered. 

Behind him, his tail lashed back and forth too — it was smacking the back of Erwin’s legs, actually — while he trailed off and seemed at a loss for words, and alright, Erwin thought, he was definitely not happy with the clothes. Really, though, thinking about it, he probably couldn’t blame him, as even if he was still quite sure that no one would bat an eyelash at Levi in public, the extremely casual, concedingly shabby outfit was very different than the things that he was probably used to wearing in his time. 

“I know it’s not velvet and lace.” Erwin said with that in mind, referring, of course, to the finery that Levi had arrived in at his house the night before. “But you’ll blend right in. Everyone owns clothing like this now, I promise.”

“Is that what you’re gonna wear, then?” Levi asked in response, a question which Erwin hadn’t expected, and which made him pause to think, as he’d been so focused on finding clothes for Levi that he’d barely spared a thought to what  _ he  _ might end up dressed in. 

Admittedly, right then, his initial instincts had him thinking that he wanted to look nice while out with the man standing next to him, but wearing clothes like that — even just khakis and a sweater, which was what he would have probably worn were this a  _ normal  _ date — might make Levi feel more out of place than he probably already would. Erwin wanted him to be as comfortable as possible, he thought, so that he could just enjoy his time out in public without having to worry about being discovered, and so as much as it pained him, he knew that he should probably just wear something similar, something like the t-shirt, jeans, and jacket that he would have probably worn anyway had he been going out alone. 

“Yes.” He told Levi, watching as he then blinked, looked back down onto the bed from where he’d been staring up at Erwin, and then sighed dramatically, lowering his hands to his sides so that he could grab at the hem of the t-shirt he wore and begin to pull it over his head faster than Erwin could even blink.

“Fine.” He said too, sounding and looking casual while Erwin, on the other hand, froze, even as his eyes snapped towards Levi before he could help himself.

Watching him remove his shirt almost languidly, he stared at each inch of smooth, pale skin that was revealed, first at his taut stomach and hip bones and the trail of wiry, dark hair that lay in between, and then at his chest, at his perky pink nipples that seemed to just beg for his mouth, the sight of them reminding him how they’d absolutely glistened with water in the bath and— 

“See something you like?” Levi’s voice interrupted Erwin’s trip down memory lane, practically jolting him out of the reverie he’d accidentally fallen into while staring. 

No, he thought, staring was the wrong word. He’d been  _ ogling  _ and he wanted to groan, but how could he help it? Levi was just so gorgeous, and seemed to turn him on with everything he did. Of course, taking his shirt off right in front of him was no exception, but then again, Levi was aware of that. Had he done it on purpose? Erwin wasn’t sure, but even if he was looking at him and teasing him about it now, he was already reaching for the thermal undershirt Erwin had added to his outfit — he was concerned about Levi being cold, and had also grabbed a scarf and some gloves — so that he could put it on. 

“Yes.” Erwin had to admit in response, though, smiling at Levi and again refraining from touching him, even if his belly felt like it was on fire and he was halfway to having a hard-on just from looking at him. “Of course. You really are very beautiful, Levi. I hope you know that.”

At that, it seemed to be Levi’s turn to freeze. He stopped, Erwin noticed, from where he’d been about to pull the shirt over his head, and turned completely to stare at him with his brows drawn down and his lips parted — the expression on his face seeming to indicate that he couldn't believe he’d heard Erwin right — but by then, Erwin had already turned to head into the bathroom, as he needed to take a shower before they left to wash his hair. He actually hadn’t done so in the bath last night, he’d remembered, because he’d been too distracted, and obviously, he thought, he wasn’t going to spend the rest of the day around Levi feeling unclean. 

Still, he made it quick and didn’t bother to shave away the scruff that had built up on his face since the morning before, instead leaving it in favor of getting out and ready as soon as possible so that he wouldn’t have to make Levi wait. That being said, he exited the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist — he’d forgotten to grab his robe from the bedroom — with the intent to make a beeline for his walk-in closet so that he could get dressed, but instead found himself stopping, naturally, once he opened to door and caught sight of Levi sitting on the bed in his new outfit. 

Immediately, Erwin smiled when he saw him, feeling his heart flutter pleasantly in his chest while he did so because...well, because Levi looked so cute that Erwin could almost hardly stand it. He’d known that he would, he thought, especially because everything was too big for him, but imagining it and seeing it were two different things. Still, though, he  _ did  _ manage to note that it all had the effect that they’d wanted, that the hoodie was long and baggy enough on him to cover his tail, and that the baseball cap hid his ears so he really did just look like someone who had thrown on whatever he could find to run a quick errand. 

The leggings just added to that impression, Erwin thought, although he saw that Levi had rolled the ends of them up a bit so that they wouldn’t be too long on his legs, but unfortunately, the shoes were just as problematic as he had suspected they would be. They were big,  _ too  _ big, big enough so that they looked absolutely ridiculous on Levi, but what could they do? Erwin still didn’t have any other ideas, but he really didn’t think that anyone would notice, either, unless he had trouble walking — something that he hoped the socks he’d stuffed into them would help with like he’d hoped. Other than that, though, after looking Levi all the way over one more time, Erwin was of the opinion that his idea  _ had  _ worked, despite the fact that Levi had not officially told him whether or not he was comfortable yet. 

“I’m sorry.” Erwin told him at that thought, after realizing he was staring again and that Levi might not be too happy about it this time. 

He didn’t want to make him feel strange by doing so, he told himself, but then again, although Levi had been frowning darkly when he’d exited the bathroom, he was  _ also  _ gazing at Erwin too, eyeing him now with his lips parted and his lids lidded — probably because he was still standing there in nothing but a towel. His cheeks even seemed to be pink as well, Erwin saw, but even so, he stepped forward again so that he could disappear into his closet, knowing that he needed to get dressed and hoping that once he did Levi would feel a little better about what he was wearing. 

“You look perfect in your clothes, Levi.” He yelled back at him though, while pulling his towel off now that he was hidden and using it to rub at his damp hair. Looking around in his closet, he first located a very old, very faded long-sleeved t-shirt, one that he actually only tended to wear while he was doing yard work in the summer. The logo on it had peeled off so there was just the outline of it remaining on the front, and he decided that would do nicely, tugging it off the hanger so that he could slip it over his head before he went to locate a pair of jeans. “Like I said, no one will glance twice at you. You look just like someone who had to take a quick trip to the grocery store, which is what we’re doing. You look...”

Trailing off, Erwin stopped himself before he could say ‘normal,’ as he didn’t want to imply that there was something wrong with Levi otherwise. That wouldn’t make him feel less self-conscious, he knew, and so he paused for a moment, grabbing some pants that he recalled being worn completely through at the knees. Sure enough, he thought, when he unfolded them there were holes, and so he tugged them on after putting on his underwear first, almost absentmindedly doing so while he opened his mouth to finish his sentence from before.

“You look like a regular person. I guarantee you half of the other people we see will be dressed exactly like that. We— 

Erwin stopped again, this time because he’d turned around after he was finished in the closet with the intent to exit, only to find, instead, that the exit was blocked by Levi, who was standing just outside the open doorway with his sharp gaze already fixated on Erwin. What…? Erwin thought, momentarily surprised. Had Levi been there the entire time? Had he been watching him get dressed? If so, he would have had a nice view of his ass since his back had been to the door, which wasn’t really a big deal to Erwin at all — Levi had already seen him naked, of course, and he found that the thought of him doing this made him want to chuckle — but he just...hadn’t heard him walk up at all, and he definitely hadn’t expected him to be standing 3 feet away from him when he had turned around. 

“Levi.” He said, unable to keep from thinking of Levi as a cat stalking its prey in that moment — just as he couldn’t stop himself from flirtatiously repeating the exact phrase that Levi had used earlier when  _ he  _ had caught  _ Erwin  _ staring. “See something you like?”

“I was just checking on your outfit.” Levi replied, though, even as the flush on his face deepened from before.

“I see. Does it meet your approval, then?”

Erwin smirked a bit while he spoke, unable to help it as he watched Levi — who had been gazing up into his face — lower his eyes to very obviously take him in from head to toe. He bit his lip while he did so and then paused a moment before he casually shrugged, offering Erwin one last glance before he spun around on his heel to walk back into the bedroom.  

“Yeah, I guess.” He said too, leaving Erwin behind with a pounding heart and the very real, renewed urge to follow Levi, grab him, and press him up against the door of his closet before he could even walk past it. “You looked better in the towel, though. I think you should just wear that.”

“The towel? Really?” Erwin teased, laughing, of course, and smiling warmly at Levi’s comment while he followed him into the bedroom.

His flirting excited him, he thought, and made his stomach do flips inside of his belly, and although he didn’t do it with the intentions to start anything, he couldn’t resist gently grabbing Levi’s wrist to stop him and then pull him back into his arms, unafraid to touch him like that after what Levi had revealed to him in the kitchen. This was just like what he’d done to Erwin, in fact, when he’d reached out to grab him, and just like he hadn’t before either, Levi did not give any hint that he was disinterested in the embrace whatsoever even if this time Erwin was the one who initiated it. Instead, delightfully enough, he leaned into Erwin and placed a hand on his waist, glancing up at him with raised eyebrows while Erwin, in turn, held onto both his shoulders. 

“Yeah, really.” Levi answered him then, with a playful glint in his eye that just had Erwin smiling wider. 

“Why is that?”

“Because then everyone would be staring at the outline of that giant fucking log between your legs instead of me.”

Blinking, it honestly took Erwin a second to realize that Levi was talking about his cock. When he did, though, once he understood what he meant, he let out a laugh that he couldn’t control — right before he reached up to twist the ball cap backward over Levi’s head so that he could bend down to give him a quick kiss. 

“No one is going to stare at you, Levi.” He assured him, as even if he wasn’t entirely convinced that this was just Levi’s strange way of acting coy, he didn’t want to take any chances. “I promise.”

“But the clothes don’t match.” Levi replied, causing Erwin to frown and step back a bit so that he could look him over again.

Unfortunately, he saw, Levi was right. The hat was blue with an orange bill and had the name of a baseball team stitched across it, and the hoodie was purple with the logo of his university splashed across the front of it in green. Of course, the leggings and gloves were black, which helped, but the scarf he’d given him was red, and although he didn’t think that it mattered much, really, he frowned at the thought that it was making Levi feel more uncomfortable. He should have considered that, he knew, when picking out the clothes, but he hadn’t — probably because he certainly wouldn’t have even given it a second thought had it been him. 

“It’s not that bad.” Erwin told him, thinking to himself that he wasn’t going to  _ lie  _ and say that they did match, but only try and make him feel better about it as much as possible. Unfortunately, he thought, he was beginning to wonder if he actually could. “You can take the scarf off if you want, though. That will help. But if you really don’t like it, Levi, we don’t have to go. I— 

_ “No.”  _ Levi blurted, interrupting Erwin who had been about to say ‘I don’t want to pressure you,’ because it was true: he didn’t.

He  _ wouldn’t _ , he thought, no matter how much he found that he wanted to take Levi out and show him the world, so to speak, from a human’s perspective, and he feared for a moment that perhaps he’d come on too strong before or pushed him, and that Levi had only agreed to do this on account of him. 

“No.” Levi repeated though, shaking his head while Erwin just frowned darkly in concern. “I wanna go. I mean...uh, I want to go...with you. I’m just being stupid, but it’s fucking weird, you know, and I just want to look normal for once.”

“You’re not being stupid, Levi.” Erwin said in response to that, feeling a swell of sympathy for Levi that caused him to reach out to cup his cheek when he next looked away. 

He was scowling again, Erwin saw, and looked frustrated, and although he couldn’t tell for sure whether or not it was directed at himself, he suspected that it was, and turned the smile he was wearing — the one that had sprung up automatically when Levi had said he wanted to go out with him — into something that he hoped was reassuring. 

“It’s understandable that you’re concerned.” He continued, brushing his thumb up underneath Levi’s chin so that he could tip his head back and ensure he was looking at him. “But for the record, I don’t think you look weird. In fact, I think you look cute, and I hope it’s not too forward of me to say that if anyone assumes we’re together...well, I wouldn’t mind in the least.”

“Together?” Levi asked, speaking quietly and drawing his brows down, staring up at Erwin, too, with an expression that now almost seemed to be one of amazement.

“Yes.  _ ‘Together,’ _ together.” Erwin answered, watching as Levi again seemed to flush all over at his words.

“What do you mean? Are you trying to court me, or something?” 

At that, Erwin had to laugh, although he wasn’t entirely sure of whether Levi was teasing or actually  _ seriously  _ asking him. Did it matter, he wondered? He didn’t think so — at least not when he already knew of what his answer was going to be irregardless. 

“Maybe I would have.” He said, while Levi gazed into his eyes and bit his lip. “If I were alive back then.”

“You couldn’t. We’re men.” 

“I know, but that doesn’t matter here, not anymore. And anyway, now we just call it dating.”

“So are we going ‘dating,’ then?” Levi asked, applying the terminology a bit strangely with a slight frown on his face — one that did nothing to hide the spark of something bright and hopeful that Erwin could clearly see behind his widened eyes.  

Because of that, and because he’d already thought to himself several times that he’d  _ wished  _ this were a real date, Erwin smiled again warmly, feeling his heart sing in his chest as he chuckled and then moved to take both of Levi’s hands in his own.

“It can be a date, if you want it to be.” He said, pausing while he watched Levi visibly swallow and go still.

“Do you?” He asked Erwin, murmuring the question in a voice that was so quiet he had to almost strain to hear it. 

He was squeezing his hands too, Erwin realized, and he thought, at that moment, that the contrast in his behavior now and how he’d acted when things were purely sexual, so to speak, was quite different, enough for him to again wonder about Levi’s past. What had he experienced, he thought? He wanted to know, and badly, but no matter what, even if Levi looked so painfully vulnerable right then that it made his chest hurt, Erwin didn’t feel like Levi would answer him if he asked. 

In fact, he somehow sensed that he would clam up and scowl and then the sweet moment they were having would be ruined, and so instead, Erwin just nodded like he wanted to do anyway — like he would be powerless  _ not  _ to do, he thought right then, because Levi’s temporary status as a human made him want to give him anything he desired — and bent to kiss him, feeling his heart begin to melt when Levi closed his eyes and practically threw himself into the embrace. 

“Yes.” Erwin answered him too. “I’d like that, Levi. I’d like that very much.” 


End file.
